Oxygen in Your Lungs
I usually listen to a podcast episode or a few minutes of an audiobook at the start of my workouts to distract my brain from thinking about how much I do not want to be working out at that moment. Then, when I’m about halfway through exercising and my body loosens up, I switch to a playlist with a few bangers from my high school and college years. Nothing gets this almost 40-year-old mama’s feet moving a little faster than hits from the 90s and early aughts.
One morning last week when I went on a run and was still in that first half of my workout, I listened to a podcast interview with Gary Haugen, the founder of International Justice Mission. IJM is an organization helping those facing modern slavery, exploitation, and abuse. They serve people who have suffered unbelievable trauma, pulling men, women, and children out of horrendous circumstances such as sex trafficking.
“Joy is the oxygen for doing hard things.”
When you’re working in those types of situations, regularly witnessing the worst of what humans can do to each other, it’s easy to get so discouraged and hopeless that all you want to do is throw in the towel. So how do you keep going? How do you press onward when everything keeps pushing you back?
Haugen’s answer was this: “Joy is the oxygen for doing hard things.”
When he said that line, I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and typed it into the Notes app on my phone. It’s not a new idea, but it’s one I needed to remember. He went on to talk about how if you’re going to keep working for justice, staring evil in the face, and fighting for good, joy has to be there, too.
We have to breathe in joy like oxygen so we can continue moving forward. Otherwise, it’s like we’re working while holding our breath. Eventually, we’ll collapse.
I don’t know what day-to-day work you’re doing. Maybe you’re in the trenches with people suffering from the worst kinds of evil. Or maybe you’re not necessarily dealing with evil and trauma, but you’ve got other challenges on your plate. You’re helping care for your aging parents or teaching a child with a disability. Maybe you’re running a business or nursing a newborn or calling the insurance company yet again.
“Making time to experience moments of joy, however small, is an act of resilient hope.”
The circumstances we all face are not equal. You may be carrying far heavier burdens than I am, and still others carry even heavier burdens than either of us can fathom. But we all face some level of struggle, and so we all need joy to keep us going. We need to know life can be good and sweet and delightful. We need to hear laughter and eat chocolate and notice butterflies and remember that God created pandas. We need to listen to good music and feel the sun against our skin and watch our kids splash in the ocean.
Some might say those little moments of joy are shallow, unnecessary even. But I think making time to experience moments of joy, however small, is an act of resilient hope. And you can’t do hard things without at least a glimmer of hope.
So friends, put some proverbial oxygen in your lungs this month. Breathe in joy, wherever and whenever you can. And then keep going, knowing that while the hard stuff won’t necessarily disappear, joy doesn’t have to disappear, either.
Encouraged by this post? Check out my book, All Who Are Weary: Finding True Rest by Letting Go of the Burdens You Were Never Meant to Carry.
