Finding Joyful Blessing For A New Year!

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One of the many benefits of enjoying a solid spiritual walk is that you can look upwards for your needs and wants, and enjoy a true optimism about the future. With 2011 upon us, I hope your path brings you that purpose, optimism, and joy that you need to live a fulfilled life. Hi, I’m Steve Beaman and welcome to the Spiritual Path.

“Find joy in all things”, a comment from the New Testament book of (1 Thess. 5:16-18) was an exhortation from the Apostle Paul to us as he instructed his followers and the followers of “The Way” to find their joy in the things of the Spirit, not the things of the earth. His contentment was found in his knowledge that salvation had been perfected and thus his life’s purpose was to witness Jesus Christ until he was taken home upon his death, as his true home was in heaven. As we look to a new year, with all the promise that holds, are we ready to find joy in all things as we too can find the contentment that Paul had?

This New Year ahead will present many challenges to each and every one of us. Some of them will be “macro” in the sense that they are challenges arising from circumstances above and beyond our control like government actions, economic issues, social issues and political unrest. Other challenges will be “micro” in that they’ll be personal to us; sickness, job loss, death and all of the other changes. Are you prepared to “find joy in all things” regardless of whether your issues are “macro” or “micro”? I know I sometimes struggle with this as I do tend to get mad when I read the news, or I get a setback in business, or the children have some issue that’s just not right. But when it comes down to it, like you, I must be prepared to live consistently with the professions of my faith, and Paul’s statement to find joy is certainly part of it.

And by the way, I don’t believe that what’s being commanded here is statement to naively just go out with a Pollyannaish attitude where “nothing gets to you”. Not at all! But i believe this does refer to keeping perspective on things with a higher purpose in mind so that you’re not brought down by things that really are either out of your control all together, or when looked upon later in the scope of life, really not that critical.

As I grow older, and begin to understand what “wisdom” means, I think too that Paul’s comment relates to that. As a young man, I was a “clanging cymbal” as is said in his letter to the Corinthians, but as I get older, looking upwards rather than inwards for the solutions to life’s issues, I find it is a more contented and thoughtful life; one that can sit back and see things in perspective of the whole, not in the microcosm of themselves. Now friends, I’m not suggesting I’m all pious and perfect, I’m far from it. I’m a work in progress like most of us, and I find I don’t always take my own advice, but I’m working on it!

So this New Years, as you reflect on the past, and look to the future, I hope you can find the peace to have a joyful spirit about what has been, and what will be and in the year ahead, and learn to process the challenges, roadblocks, and bumps in the road with a new spirit, one that will “find joy in all things”.