A Jolt of Joyናሙና

Philippians is one of the shortest Epistles in the New Testament and was written by Paul by the murky light of a window in a Roman prison cell. Certainly a man in the cesspool of life is entitled to write a letter of complaint to the management! Surely a man who has been beaten and bruised for choosing to preach the Gospel gets to vent his emotions or tell his side of the story at least one time! None of us would blame the great apostle Paul if he chose to be "real" and share his disappointment with God ... with life ... and with the hand that he had been dealt. Instead, in this short letter written to an obscure church that existed nearly 2 millennia ago, Paul uses the words "joy" or "rejoicing" no less than 14 times! Unfortunately, we think that a blip of joy on the radar screen of life is worth a standing "O" by everyone who is aware of our presence. We break our arms patting ourselves on the back when we sing in church even though we had a miserable spat with our husband on the way to church. One thing that we can surely learn from the life of Paul, is that our circumstances do not need to be perfect to be a walking, talking demonstration of the joy of heaven! Today, with Paul, I choose joy! Do you?