{"id":14614,"date":"2026-05-08T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/?p=14614"},"modified":"2026-04-02T07:53:47","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T12:53:47","slug":"joy-in-gods-presence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/2026\/05\/08\/joy-in-gods-presence\/","title":{"rendered":"Joy in God&#8217;s Presence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Two-minute read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"819\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/May-8th-819x1024.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-14617\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/May-8th-819x1024.png 819w, https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/May-8th-240x300.png 240w, https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/May-8th-768x960.png 768w, https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/May-8th.png 1080w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 819px) 100vw, 819px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As I turn my thoughts to the path of life, I grieve the loss of my beloved cousin Harry, who passed late last night at the age of 76. A robust man, he lived life to the fullest. His quick wit and dry sense of humor kept me on my toes. Any baby that came within arm\u2019s length of Harry got balanced on their tippy toes in his mighty hands. Harry helped me learn how to live life, one day at a time, with a quiet strength.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I asked Harry, years ago at a family funeral, \u201cHow do you handle death well?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cYou learn to accept it\u2019s a part of life,\u201d he told me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019ve never forgotten that conversation. And as I think of Harry now, in the full glory of the Lord, He has learned the secret I have yet to learn. Without death, we don\u2019t truly have life. One day, we will experience the glory that Harry now knows, the eternal pleasures at God\u2019s right hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On earth, we can live in the joy of the Lord when we center our lives around Him. When days of loss come, we must seek God more deeply, trusting Him with what we do not know. As we die to self and pick up the cross that lies before us, we will experience the Lord\u2019s joy as He grows and molds us to become more like Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>David, the author of today\u2019s psalm, didn\u2019t find the life path; he received it, and in so doing found the joy of the Lord. As Christ\u2019s followers, we don\u2019t earn eternal life; we receive it through faith, as I did, as Harry did, as you do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Harry has finished his work on earth; he will now bask in the Lord\u2019s glory for eternity. For us that remain, the Lord still has divine work for us to do, a mission to complete and purpose to fulfill. And one day, when we finish our work, the Lord will call us home, and we will join the saints who went before us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Until we meet again, Harry, I love you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\">Reflection:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><em>When sorrow comes your way, how can you lean into the Lord\u2019s divine joy?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\">Joy Thought:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">God\u2019s joy walks with us through sorrow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two-minute read. As I turn my thoughts to the path of life, I grieve the loss of my beloved cousin Harry, who passed late last night at the age of 76. A robust man, he lived life to the fullest. His quick wit and dry sense of humor kept me on my toes. Any baby&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/2026\/05\/08\/joy-in-gods-presence\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Joy in God&#8217;s Presence<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","without-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14614"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14619,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14614\/revisions\/14619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}