Finding joy in the everyday

"Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice." (Philippians 4:4)

Garrison Keillor, longtime host of NPR's "A Prairie Home Companion," once opined that some people can have a hangnail and that alone can cause them to question God's goodness.

Any casual reader of the New Testament will note that Paul, formerly Saul of Tarsus, is nothing like Keillor's fictional hangnail man. Paul, who, the New Testament reveals, came to Christ on the road to Damascus, tried to find joy in the everyday and urged the readers of his letters to do the same. Paul had a rough go after coming late to the game of discipleship: shipwreck, stoning, imprisonment, an object of hatred by his former colleagues in the Roman world, an object of distrust by his newfound brothers in "The Way," which was the early name given to the Christian movement of the mid-first century A.D.

Despite adversity, Paul urges joy -- in the epigram of this column and in the first letter he ever wrote to a church: "Rejoice always." (I Thessalonians 5:16)

Paul had no blinders. He knew life was tough; his was especially difficult. He knew the path to happiness and peace in this life was to be found in his attitude -- a joyful attitude.

I've been finding joy in small things. The pleasure of listening to the rhythmic breathing of my wife as she sleeps, for example. I always wake up first, and it's joyful to lie there and listen. The pleasure of riding a bicycle before dawn through a downtown you've grown to love and through a nearby park -- and of successfully pushing that contraption up a steep grade. It's a small joy, but I'll take it. The joy of listening to musicians, a municipal band, play the stirring strains of "Loch Lomond," which brings to mind memories of western Scotland -- a desolate yet remarkable place. The pleasure of a conversation over lunch with a person you didn't previously know very well -- and discovering you have much in common. The joy of standing before a classroom of college students and sharing your passion for the Old Testament, a library of material that has survived the test of time because it still speaks to the experiences of men and women today.

Once in awhile, you'll hear a person say something so profound that the words act as a guided missile to the center of your cerebral cortex.

The publisher of this newspaper, Jon Rust, spoke to Leadership Jackson earlier this month and said the following -- and I paraphrase the publisher here: "Finances are the oxygen that allow this newspaper to breathe. We have to have, every business has to have, oxygen, the money to operate. But simply breathing is not the goal. We're not in business to just breathe."

It was a pleasure to hear those words. A simple truth, but said in such a way to command my attention. I'll remember it.

Think of the everyday things in your life that may bring you joy: a cup of coffee in the early morning, the purring of a household cat, the quiet engine of a lawn mower, the refreshing sound of rainfall on a warm day, a thousand different sights and sounds that may be meaningful to you. Think of those things and you'll be luxuriating in the words of Philippians chapter 4 and in the laser-focusing words of the fourth verse: "Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice!"

Rev. Jeff Long, D.Min., of Jackson, is a real estate agent with Realty Executives of Cape County, an instructor of Old Testament at Southeast Missouri State University, and a part-time pastor.