Wednesday, May 28, 2025

Seek the Lord and find joy!



WORD 2day: Thursday, 6th week in Easter time

May 29, 2025: Acts 18: 1-18; John 16: 16-20

There is a promise from the Lord today: your sorrow will turn into joy! 

At times, it may seem too lofty a promise and most of us might look at it with suspicion. However, it is not so because the Lord is wrong or deceptive, but maybe our understanding of true joy is not right at times!

Ever heard of the anecdote about this monk who went into contemplation and came out "enlightened" after almost a decade? Since everyone considered him "enlightened", a man approached him with a question: what difference do you find between the world as it was when you went into contemplation a decade ago and that of today? He said, "when I went in the land was down and the sky was up there, there was summer and winter, and there was day and night." "And Now?", the questioner quipped with his curiosity soaring! "Ah, now the land is down and the sky is up there, there is summer and there is winter, and there is night and there is day!"

Would you be wondering that the story is incomplete, if I end it there? No, you need not! The fact is, indeed the things remain the same, but the way the enlightened person see them is completely different from the way others see it! Your sorrow will turn to joy, not only because everything around you will turn upside down, but because you will find yourself different, your priorities would become different, your concerns turn out to be different. That will make all the difference!

When those people rejected Paul outright, he couldn't care less! He was just the same and walked off cool, because for him that rejection mattered nothing! For him sorrows had turned into joy, everything was joyful, for in everything, he sought the Lord!