If You Want to Be Happy for the Rest of Your Life
15 Happy are the people who know the festal shout, who walk, O Lord, in the light of your countenance; 16 they exult in your name all day long, and extol your righteousness. 17 For you are the glory of their strength; by your favor our horn is exalted. 18 For our shield belongs to the Lord, our king to the Holy One of Israel.
Psalms 89:15-18 (NRSV)
Okay; maybe I am pushing the title just a bit too far. All of us - even the "most faithful of the faithful" – have our bad days. In fact, many of those days can be downright brutal and terrifying. Yet, there is something about those faithful folks who have not forgotten the “festal shout” and who seek to “walk in the light” of God’s ways. I have met some, and count a few as my dearest of friends. I admire them for their committed beliefs in the face of all the odds against them. Truth be told, I praise them for their faithfulness, and look to them for guidance on my own faith passage.
Life is certainly no easier for them. They are faced with the same struggles that we all face; and yet, somehow, in the midst of the difficulties and immense pains of this life, these devout souls trudge through their endless days with a more joyous glow about them then most, and a ring of hope in their voices and dreams. Their attitude and approach towards life’s struggles is even one which exults the One on whom they center, and asserts the righteousness of God’s reign. Just being around them brings a refreshing new light to even the gloomiest of days.
O, how I long for us all to have such a degree of total and complete trust and confidence in the Lord our God, and to experience the joy, and the happiness, which such conviction brings. What a more harmonious world it would be.
Strengthen my resolve, ever-present God, to firmly set my eyes on your ways, and your ways alone; and to live and joyously exult in you always. May it be so!
Amen.
Rev. Michael Kirchhoff
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