Monday morning: choosing joy

Last night the belt on my dryer broke. Of course, this happened with a load of pants in the dryer and more clothes in the washer. Clothes that I really need to be dry so that I can be appropriately clothed for work. This is on top of the dishwasher that died last week. I have spent the last week re-discovering exactly how spoiled I am to the ease and luxury of putting dirty dishes in a machine and having them come out clean! I know that these are very "1st word" problems, but they are my problems and frankly pretty dang important to my daily life. But not, I am realizing, to my joy.

There is a song we sing in church from time to time that talks about bringing the "sacrifice of praise" to God. "We bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord. And we offer up to you the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and we offer up to you, the sacrifices of joy". Sacrifice of joy. Sometimes it really is a sacrifice, because in order to be joyful, I have to sacrifice my frustration, anger, or hurt. And there are times when all I want is to cling to those things with all my strength. To wallow, just a bit, in bitterness and frustration. "Why me???" I want to scream to the heavens. "Why does my life have to be so difficult all the time??"....

The truth is, my life is hard. Sometimes it is very unfair. Everyone's is. There is nothing unique in that. What makes each of our lives unique is how we choose to react to life. Today I am choosing joy.