Do you know the one thing most people forget? They simply forget to be fun to be with. I’m not talking about putting a big coat-hanger smile in your mouth. This is not about faking it. And I’m not talking about being the life of the party so much as quietly enjoying your life at the party or anywhere you happen to be. Fun to be with. Isn’t it easy to forget?

    And how often we forget. We forget because we’ve allowed the idea of joy to slip too far from our consciousness. It has been crowded out by quasi-entertainment, empty humor, and hollow laughter. It has been overtaken by over-seriousness. Moreover, the rate of change in our world today creates all sorts of uneasiness and anxiety for us.

Joy is the only thing that can save us.

    How, then, can we talk about joy, about being fun to be with? In this case, what appears to be the problem is really the solution. Instead of joy being contradictory to our present experience, it is the only thing that can save us.

    I believe joy is the deepest thing in the universe. If it’s possible, even deeper than love. I also believe it is the deepest thing in the human heart. Joy in a turbulent life is like the stillness of the ocean’s depth during a storm. It is there ... untroubled ...unthreatened.

    Joy is powerful. When understood, it is the perfect antidote to anxiety and tragedy. Joy is the only thing I know before which tragedy loses its steam.

    How to be joyful — this is our task. How to be joyful in a way that makes us naturally fun to be with. “The joy of the Lord will be my strength!”

© 2001, Landon Saunders. Used by permission. From the "Monday Morning Jumpstart" by Landon Saunders and http://www.heartbeatlife.org

Title: "The One Thing Most People Forget"
Author: Landon Saunders
Publication Date: August 1, 2001

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