What gives you the greatest joy in life?

What gives you the greatest joy in life? A while back, I was reading something and it talked about a person who was talking about their greatest joy was to escape from their family with video games. That is the only thing that they wanted to do, because the game made them feel like a different person, and not like themselves where they felt inadequate. It reminded me of the movie “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” in which one of the characters was kind of a nerd and became a strong and powerful character when he entered into a video game. He wanted to stay like that the entire time because it made him feel like a “someone”.

Sometimes we feel that we are inadequate in life. Social media and other media does not help with that because people can tend to exaggerate the good things that are going on in their lives, and the whole point of advertising is to make you feel like you are lacking until you have their product. If you look at being a Christian by comparing yourself to others, you are looking at the wrong person, because every one of us are sinners in some way.

The point of Christ’s coming in the flesh was to redeem us and give us that perfect example to follow. Now do we always do it? No, that is what sin is. If we look at the people who encountered Christ, we can see a pattern in who they were and how they acted. Those who saw themselves as better than others or righteous people were really not, but most of the time were the ones who were in judgment of others. Those who saw themselves as sinners and came to Jesus or were brought to Jesus are the ones that Jesus praises.

Now I am not saying here that we should all mope around and beat our chest covered in sackcloth and ashes. What I am saying is that we should always remember that God created us to be in his likeness and image. He created us with talents and gifts for us to share with others. He wants us to not just be content to be people of the world and strive for those things, but he also wants us to be those people who live out our lives for the Kingdom of Heaven. He wants us to put aside trying to be what the culture, our friends, our family, the world wants us to be, but to be a true and beautiful disciple of the living and true God who loves us so much that he came to live our life and die our death.

Just remember the phrase that Jesus tells the woman caught in the very act of adultery, “Neither do I condemn you, but go and sin no more.” Jesus does not say that what she did was OK, but calls her to acknowledge her forgiveness and receive it with joy and to turn away from the sin. That is the message we should all hear.

God bless,
Fr. Ken