You only have to read through newspaper headlines or watch five minutes of a news broadcast to find unfortunate news. Stories of human triumph and genuine compassion are typically outweighed by the negative tale. Sadly, this often shifts our personal perspective as well. We begin to only see misery in everything and quickly criticize every experience as soon as we walk away from it (and sometimes in the middle of the moment.) We have become so jaded with the condition of our world that we have become effusive with complaints instead of compliments.
We can moan about the minutia of our lives or we can choose to find joy and strength in unlikely places. It's a simple matter of shifting what we are searching for. The truth is that we will find exactly what we look for no matter where we look for it. Imagine the difference in our demeanor, our spiritual health, our personal interactions, and our community involvement if we began to look for joyful moments instead of sorrow.
"The reward of choosing joy is joy itself." Henri Nouwen, The Return of the Prodigal Son
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