From silly devotions and sour-faced saints, good Lord, deliver us! -- St. Teresa d'Avila
In this time before Easter I have been thinking a lot about Joy. The best definition I could come to on my own was a deep and powerful sense of happiness. How often do we feel Joy? Or even real happiness? It can be a real challenge in this society! We’re busy, working constantly, and most of all we’re anxious. So many of us are positively drowning in anxiety and worry! We are supposed to be a people of joy, with hearts full of gladness! Instead we are becoming a generation of sour faced saints!
How often do you run into some one who you would classify as a genuinely joyful person? I know a few, and it is an absolute gift to just be around them. It’s contagious! How can we be more joyful? How can we battle our very real anxieties and worries? The saints are some of the best people to turn to when you don’t know what to do. There are so many of them, one is bound to have experienced something similar to you! So I looked up a few quotes that really spoke to this idea of living a joyful life. Here’s a few ways to avoid being a sour faced saint.
“Christians must lean on the Cross of Christ just as travelers lean on a staff when they begin a long journey.” -- St. Anthony de Padua
Let’s face it, we’re young. We have a TON of life ahead God willing, and we need strength for the journey. Because it is a journey, this path that we are embarking on. If we are already bogged down with anxiety and stress this early in the game, already struggling to find reasons to smile, how on earth are we going to make it? St. Anthony says we must lean on the cross of Christ like a walking stick. What does that mean? Jesus died to save us from our sins. We could not do a single thing for ourselves, and guess what? We still can’t. We are hopeless, weak, incompetent beings without His aid and we need grace humility to recognize that. We need His help!
Imagine hiking up a mountain in the dark, no trail, no signs. Imagine how many times you trip and fall, you wonder if you’re going the right direction, and wishing you had some sort of weapon to ward off the beasts you are sure are watching you with hungry eyes. You feel panicked, scared, anxious!
New scenario. You are hiking up a mountain, it’s still dark, but now you have this amazing walking stick. Sure you trip still, but you catch yourself before you hit the ground hard. Since we are Millennials, the stick is high tech! It has a nice bright light attached to the top, not the kind that blinds you to what’s happening in the shadows, but just bright enough to keep you aware of your surroundings. It had all sorts of gadgets that are suited to you, on your particular journey. Also if you hit a hidden button on the side, a compass pops out. (I hesitate to compare Gods guidance to a GPS, because let’s face it, most of the time we spin around and around trying to figure out which way is north, rather than setting out knowing exactly where we are going. But once you learn to use the tools God gives you, you really begin to make tracks!) It serves as a weapon too, suited to your fighting style and enhancing your unique strengths (Picture beating a creature of darkness with your metaphorical walking stick of Christ) and you make your way with much less anxiety than before. We need to lean on Christ, without Him we get scared, tired, and disoriented. Save your energy, turn to God, He invites you to rest in Him. Also he’s giving out these crazy awesome walking sticks…
“Must you continue to be your own cross? No matter which way God leads you, you change everything into bitterness by constantly brooding over everything. For the love of God, replace all this self-scrutiny with a pure and simple glance at God's goodness.” -- St. Jeanne de Chantal
This made me laugh! I felt as though she were talking directly and purposefully to me. “Knock it off!” she says. Get over yourself and trust God for goodness sake! So much of our suffering we bring on ourselves. So many times we worry about things that are inconsequential. How silly we must look to the father who sees all! When things that we anguish over end up working out in the end, we are so exhausted from our anxiety and giddy with relief that we can’t even stop to give thanks to the Father who cares for our every need! This is wrong! We suffer beforehand from our self imposed anxiety, and then rob ourselves of rejoicing and thankfulness!
“replace all this self-scrutiny with a pure and simple glance at God’s goodness.”
Ok, I know what you’re thinking, it’s a lovely sentiment, but a little abstract to really help in day to day life. I challenge you to dig deeper into what St. Jeanne is saying here. Is she asking us to just quit worrying and walk about in an ignorant state of bliss? Certainly not! For the Bible tells us, no requires us, to be prudent and take action to prepare for the future! For example in Proverbs 6:6-8 it says:
Go to the ant, you lazybones;
consider its ways, and be wise.
7 Without having any chief
or officer or ruler,
8 it prepares its food in summer,
and gathers its sustenance in harvest.
Don’t wait to be told! Get to work! We must be wise and think ahead and prepare for the days to come. However anxiety need not overcome our lives snuffing out our joy! We are going to feel stress in this life, no doubt about it. However St. Jeanne reminds us to stop and smell the roses, for we need not have anxiety without cause. Give anxiety its proper place and time. In this moment right now, reading this article, consider what you are anxious about. Now ask yourself “Can I do anything to fix it at this point in time?” If the answer is yes, and you’re anxious because you have procrastinated on a project for work and its due tomorrow, GO DO IT! For heaven’s sake take action against your anxiety! Seriously, it’s due tomorrow, you can read this later…
If the answer is no, then gently, kindly, put your anxiety aside for later and take a good look at where you’re at. Take a moment to recognize the purity and simplicity of Gods goodness. Who are you with? What are you doing? Are you clothed, fed, sheltered? Are there people you love that you are spending time with? What is beautiful in this moment that you are in? What do you have to look forward to, even if it’s just a cup of coffee later on? Leave room in your life for the beautiful, for the simple and thank God for them. These are the things that make life worth living. If you do not attempt the struggle of putting aside your worries to be dealt with at the appointed time, if you do not fight to notice what is good all around you, than your life will be an unhappy one. Develop the discipline to make time to be happy; because “For the love of God,” no one is going to do it for you.
“It often happens that I wake up at night and begin to think about a serious problem and decide I must tell the Pope about it. Then I wake up completely and remember that I am the Pope.” -- Blessed Pope John XXIII
Ok, but what happens when you are the sole authority figure in a situation? When you cannot confide in anyone, or even really ask advice? How do you find happiness in that? How do you not stress out about that?!
Gotcha. Trick question. Have you learned nothing so far?! See quote number 1. Pick up your walking stick. Fork in the road? Ask God to show you which one to choose. No discernible answer? Pick one the one that brings you a sense of peace, and trust that God will lead you home, even if you made the “wrong” choice. There are no obstacles for God, there is nothing you can do to screw up His plan. He brings goodness out of every situation. So breeeaaathe. You are never the sole authority figure. You may feel in it alone but that’s a dark lie. God is always there to offer comfort and advice. Read the works of the saints, talk to a favorite priest. Chances are there are many people around you watching you struggle and wishing you would let them help. You are not in this alone. Certainly we need to take responsibility in our life and not rely on others to live life for us, but even Blessed Pope John XXIII had his advisers! What makes you think you can out do the Pope?
“If this is the way You treat Your friends, no wonder You have so few!” -- St. Teresa of Avila
Have a sense of humor. Our God invented humor! He created everything! So don’t be afraid to stop and notice that something is funny, even in serious situations. Obviously take this advice with a grain of salt, please don’t burst into laughter at a funeral, but do have a chuckle every now and then. Don’t get so uptight with worry and fear that you miss the chance to laugh. St. Teresa made light of her trials with a light hearted jibe at God, we can too. Laughter can help make the best out of uncomfortable situations.
Let me give you an example. My family and I have the WORST luck with cars, particularly with our dear old (and I do mean OLD) RV. We break down constantly. CONSTANTLY. It doesn’t matter how recently it went into the shop, or how diligently my Dad worked on it, every single trip we would always break down. Well this summer we were going to drive from Texas to California to visit my good friend Hayley and her family. I was really excited, positively bouncing on my seat in anticipation of just GETTING there. We got about a day into the journey when we realized something awful… the Air conditioner had broken. We were driving three miserable, sweaty, days through the desert in the middle of June. Texas never ended, and when it did New Mexico stretched out like a 100 degree scalding sea before us. All the while I was absolutely desperate to reach the promise land, California, with beaches and mixed drinks and quality time with Hayley.
Finally after sweating half our body weight, we reached the mountains, and we laughed as we joked about how we made our quota of break downs since the AC was out, but that we were still moving! Take that Murphy!! Nope. In the middle of a mountain pass we hit a rock, and lost a tire. As we sat there on the side of the road my Mom and I looked at each other gravely, miserably. After three miserable days cramped in the sweltering space now we can’t make any progress. The tire service was three hours out. We were in the middle of nowhere. We were NEVER going to get to California. There were really only two responses. We could be mad, grump at each other, point fingers at God for ruining our vacation or we could laugh. We laughed. Until tears poured down our faces. And then we popped open a bottle of champagne and celebrated being stuck in an old hunk of an RV, in a beautiful, cool mountain pass surrounded by family. It turned out to be a wonderful memory. And we did manage to reach California.
“Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song.” -- Pope John Paul II
When it comes right down to it we have to remember the big picture. Easter is right around the corner, and its message should fill us with a joy that lasts the whole year! Jesus is alive! Our faith is not unfounded, he beat death and opened the doors to heaven. We have a God who is infinite in compassion and mercy. Nothing we could do would make him stop loving us.
So when you are going though stressful times, remember the big picture. We are on the difficult road between here and heaven. We are going to be stressed sometimes, trials will come our way, but it all works out in the end! Jesus already won! So pick up your metaphorical walking stick as you set out, stop to notice the beauty around you, link arms with your fellow travelers, and laugh and sing hallelujah! This is life, a beautiful journey full of hardship and trial, but also full of an abiding happiness and joy in our savior.
Share your trials and triumphs that you have experienced on your journey to eternal happiness!
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