Rejoice in the Lord, Paul says.  

And we look around at this broken world and wonder how he could expect it of us.

Didn’t he know that disappointments wait around every bend?  That people let each other down?  That sickness and death mock us?

Haven’t we all been there?  We read that joy will come in the morning, but we aren’t sure how to make it through the night.

Rejoice in the Lord, Paul says.

He must not have known that the world weighs heavy on mortal shoulders and that heaven seems a little too far away some days.  Maybe he wasn’t aware of painful goodbyes or wayward children or ill parents.

The earth spins fast and anxiety weighs heavy and decisions must be made.  A choice made today ripples results far into the future and we always wonder if we made the right one.

Rejoice in the Lord, Paul says.

He must not have had a clue.

Or, maybe, he knew these things much too well.  He knew that, if we leaned on anything except Christ, we would surely fall.  He knew that, if we found joy anywhere except the Lord, we would eventually find ourselves alone and empty.

William Faulkner once said, Perhaps they were right in putting love into books…perhaps it could not live anywhere else.

Perhaps Paul was right in telling us to rejoice in the Lord…perhaps we could not find joy anywhere else.