“Joy, which was the small publicity of the Pagan, is the gigantic secret of the Christian. And as I close this chaotic volume (Orthodoxy), I open again the strange small book from which all Christianity came; and I am again haunted by a kind of confirmation.
This tremendous figure which fills the Gospels towers in this respect, as in every other, above all the thinkers who ever thought themselves tall.
His pathos was natural, almost casual. The Stoics, ancient and modern, were proud, proud of concealing their tears. He never concealed His tears; He showed them plainly on His open face at any daily sight, such as the far sight of His native city. Yet He concealed something . . .
Solemn Supermen and Imperial Diplomatists are proud of restraining their anger. He never restrained His anger. He flung furniture down from the steps of the Temple and asked men how they expected to escape the damnation of Hell. Yet He restrained something . . .
I say it with reverence — there was in that shattering personality a thread that must be called shyness.
There was something that He hid from all men when He went up a mountain to pray.
There was something that He covered constantly by abrupt silence or impetuous isolation.
There was some one thing that was too great for God to show us when He walked upon our earth, and I have sometimes fancied that it was His mirth.”
G.K. Cherterton, (Orthodoxy)
Fullness of Joy. The Joy of Perpetual Guidance. The Joy of knowing that every detail of our lives is planned by God, but planned with a wealth of tenderness and Love.
Oh the wonder of this – a God guided life.
By accepting God’s Will – it will bring us Joy.
Joy is of two kinds. The Joy born of Love and Wonder, and the Joy born of Love and Knowledge, and between the experience of the two Joys lie discipline, disappointment, almost disillusion….BUT persevering in obeying God’s Will and His discipline, the second Joy will follow. And of this second Joy it was said : Your Joy no man taketh from you.
Do not regret the first, the second is the greater gift.
See the Good in everybody. Love the good in them. See your unworthiness compared with their worth. Love, laugh, make the world, your little world, happy.