Joy has peace, pain

The other day some medical news came that unsettles me these days.

Although I don't like to make much of life's travails, an infection from a colonoscopy, is the reason that alarms me.

Yet, deep within the fruit of the Holy Spirit, called joy, are two conditions:
pain and peace. They pronounce loud and clear.

Pain pokes deep when it pentetrates one's being.

We all experience it by way of rejection, abandonment, betrayal of friendship, and more.

Peace is overriding also. It pervades.

Like Louis Armstrong's, What A Wonderful World, the mood and memory of listening to him sing
buoys the joy within me.

Music is like that. It stirs into the recesses of our being and brings up lasting joy. That is the joy that cannot be robbed from any of us unless I give it away.

Perhaps the prolific writer, C.S. Lewis, meant this in his, Surprised By Joy. I don't know.

Maybe the peace felt by Jesus is this joy I describe. I'm not sure.

The pervading sense may be like the runner who aims for the prize and accomplishes the task and the miles-long trek to victory.

It may be like one's life's choice, vocation, or job. I know service in lifting up life pressed down and packed at the bottom of the heap is like that.

When one reflects on joy, the pain and the peace, perhaps not at the same time always, emerge readily. A drive North and a walk with Woof and Wolf, lunch and a call tame the seeming tempest for a bit. The gold and brown and orange of a leaf leave me knowing full well of life's desolation and consolation - the roller-coaster-like ride of the spiritual life, let alone the day in and day out trail we take. Philosophy helps. Roots in God ground me deeper, however.

Joy is like the rain. Its deep down refreshing longevity is awash with peace amid the pain and ache of bad news.

Such is life's unfolding and wondering: Why me? Well, why not me? After all, the "me" I wonder about is the others who I always hear about in their own grief and pain.

In the telling and sharing of this episode in my story relief settles in some. I know I am not alone.

The effects of the infection have their own basketfull of consequences, elevations of counts, and, as the litany of doctors say, "There's something going on within you - the tests prove this."

What a wonderful world, thanks be to God. This also will pass. Yet, joy seems eternally pervasive within. I like it that way. And, to Louis Armstrong's music ministry, thanks be to the Maker who is everywhere, I learned. In this too.