Sometimes we have to choose joy

*We are going to take a couple of days off our study and look at another choice



September 11, 1994

Fifteen minutes before a seventeen year old lifeguard's shift ended, he saw a group of adults starting to sink in their paddle boat. He goes in to help...but that dive was into 18 inches of water. He would survive, but never walk again.



September 15, 1999

Hundreds of teenagers celebrate "See You at the Pole" in a church sanctuary. Adults sit around and fellowship in the church foyer. One man walks in and takes eight lives including his own and injures several others.



September 11, 2001

Many of us turn on our TVs to see hundreds of lives trapped in buildings. We watch as those buildings crumble to the ground. We are in shock that so many lives are gone.





All three are great tragedies that no one would choose. Two of those tragedies would affect my own life. The young seventeen year old is the love of my life. The church was my church and it was my friends and church family's lives that were taken or injured.



We do not choose to have tragedy in our lives. Tragedies cause so much emotion that I don't know if we even choose our response in the beginning. But as days, months, years go on; can we choose how we respond?



None of those tragedies were a one day event. Whether it is an injury, trauma or a loss of a loved one, the effects go on for awhile and sometimes forever.



I am going to speak personally.



Tomorrow will be fifteen years since Sam's diving accident. I wish I could say it gets easier, but most days it doesn't. The past few years have even been more difficult as he has more health complications from the injury. Our daily lives continue to be effected by the injury. Sacrifices are made by him, by me and by our kids.

The initial accident is not the only choice we did not get to choose. The injury itself chooses for us at times. Right now it has chosen to take away some of the strength he has had and now he possibly will not regain the strength.

He has had the choice to get up every day for fifteen years and live his life. I made the choice to marry him knowing that I was choosing to take on non-typical roles in our marriage. But if I am going to be truthful, some days those choices are hard. Some days those choices bring tears to my eyes. Some days I want to choose to run away. Some days he wants to choose to give up. And now fifteen years later, we are facing the reality that it may only get more difficult as his strength decreases. More sacrifices will be made. More struggles are to come. How will we choose to respond? On the difficult days, is joy a choice? Is it an option?



Two recent conversations have shown me how I can respond and how I can choose joy. Both were with ladies who have faced many things in their lives. One currently is facing heath issues that keep her in bed some, even most days. Another is caring for a husband who is recovering from his second stroke. But in the midst of their struggles, they will tell you how thankful they are for so many things. Instead of focusing on poor health, she chooses to thank God and find joy in just being alive. The other chooses to look at what she can learn from God through these trials. Are they frustrated? Do they grow tired and want to give up? Yes, but they have chosen where to put their focus. When they get their focus right, they find joy and peace in the trial.

Each day I have to choose where I put my focus. Each day I have to choose to see the blessings. Each day I have to choose to have hope.

Maybe today will be hard. Maybe you miss a loved one, search for a job again today, take care of a sick loved one, struggle with your own illness, start a life as a single parent, deal with a rebellious teen. Maybe you are dealing with all of them at once. But today you will choose to focus on God. You will count the blessing He has given you. You will choose hope because God loves you and is faithful. You will choose joy in the Lord because He is your Provider and never fails. You will choose to do this everyday.

My family has trials. We do not know what the future will bring with Sam's health. We can choose to look back and keep asking why. We can choose to focus on what if? We can focus on what was lost instead of what was gained. But I think I would rather focus on the other things in the above paragraph.

We will mourn, hurt, and suffer in this life. But we still can choose to find hope and joy in the middle of our trials.

"The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song. "Psalm 28:7

"Shout for joy, O heavens; rejoice, O earth; burst into song, O mountains! For the Lord comforts his people and will have compassion on his afflicted ones." Isaiah 49:13

"Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I call to you all day long.
Bring joy to your servant, for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
You are forgiving and good, O Lord, abounding in love to all who call to you." Psalm 86:3-5

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. Jeremiah 29:11"