Day 737 – Always Be Full of Joy – Wisdom Unplugged

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy Welcome to Day 737 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me. This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom Always Be Full of Joy – Wisdom Unplugged Thank you for joining us for our 5 days per week wisdom and legacy building podcast. This is Day 737 of our trek, and it is time for a 3-minute mini-trek called Wisdom Unplugged. This short nugget of wisdom includes an inspirational quote with a little additional content for today’s trek. Consider this your vitamin supplement of wisdom for today. So let’s jump right in with today’s nugget. Today’s quote is from the Apostle Paul, and it is, “Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again, Rejoice!” Always Be Full of Joy Dr. Victor Frankl, the author of Man’s Search for Meaning, was imprisoned by the Nazis in World War II because he was a Jew. His wife, his children, and his parents were all killed in the Holocaust. The Gestapo stripped him of his clothes. He stood totally naked before them. As they cut off his wedding band, Viktor said to himself, “You can take away my wife, you can take away my children, you can strip me of my clothes and my freedom, but there is one thing no person can ever take away from me—and that is my freedom to choose how I will react to what happens to me!” Even under the most difficult of circumstances, joy is a choice which transforms our tragedies into triumph. Let’s face it, not everything goes our way. Things don’t always work out as we planned. Some days are disasters. Other days are worse than that. Happiness comes easily when things go our way. Joy is different. It’s deeper. Joy is an attitude we select. Happiness is external and subject to what happens. Joy is an inside job in which we opt to rejoice regardless of the circumstances. Don’t confuse happiness with joy. Happiness is a buoyant emotion that results from the momentary plateaus of well-being. Joy is bedrock stuff. Joy is a confidence that operates irrespective of our moods. Joy is the certainty that all is well, regardless of how we feel. Joy is a divine dimension of living that is not shackled by circumstances simply because we have chosen to respond positively. Paul is saying in Philippians 4:4 that joy is not something that happens to me but rather something I deliberately and consciously select. Circumstances seldom...