Joy of Life
In Life of the Beloved Henri Nouwen writes:
“Instinctively we know that the joy of life comes from the ways in which we live together and that the pain of life comes from the many ways we fail to do that well.”
Perhaps, as you are reading this quotation, your mind is recalling a number of wonderful writings, lectures, teachings or conversations with friends discussing how we are to live lives of joy, lives worthy of our humanity, how we, as Jesus-followers, are to be image-bearers and to live our faith in encounters with others in family, community and the world. Perhaps you are thoughtfully considering the ways you have experienced life lived well together, and you are offering these ways to others generously and lovingly. Perhaps you are longing for such ways, for the joy of life, yet feeling acute pain as you are navigating through the upheaval of challenges and uncertainties of life.
As I am reading this quotation, I continue preparing for work with Proem Ministries, and I am reading Nouwen’s words as an invitation for myself, and to all of us, to take time and expand our ways of looking at our faith. We are to imagine the ways of being formed, transformed and present to each other in lives we live together. I see and hear that same invitation in Ephesians 2:10 and Romans 12, where the apostle Paul writes that when one hears and believes the gospel, life-transforming power for all, that person becomes a critical part of God’s world. We begin to reflect the love, wisdom, goodness, generosity, truthfulness, mercy and beauty of God into lives we live together.
It is significant that we think about who God is and what difference he makes in our lives together. It is significant that we recognize that as God works in a myriad of ways, one key way is through us – you and I praying fervently, thinking insightfully, loving deeply, working intentionally, creating imaginatively, encouraging truly, giving generously and serving wholeheartedly.
Let us find joy in life, deepen our own relationships with God as we grow, transform and engage with each other in the ways we live together.