Proverbs 17:22: 

22A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

Couldn’t we all use some good medicine these days? The question becomes, how are we to have a cheerful (joyful, good spirited) heart when every flick of social media, news headline or latest family drama aims to quench our Spirit? Jesus, when we abide within Him through obedience is the Good Shepard guiding us back to love, in all circumstances. Whether wars, political theater, social nonsense, or familial expectation gaps our experience, perceptions and resulting responses and emotional outcomes have only two paths. Joy flowing freely on the narrow path or judgement binding chains found around every turn on the wide path.  

Judgement births contempt, contempt births resentment, resentment births hate and hate births death. This trail of tears crushes the Spirit, His Spirit in us, thus strangling the opportunity for gleeful joy. Where does the opportunity of life or death come from? Well, from the beginning of course, the very beginning. Genesis 2:16-17 (NIV): “And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.'” We have the choice, freewill in every circumstance, to feast from the tree of the knowledge of GOOD and EVIL or to choose the tree of LIFE, bearing fruit of joy and love, the medicine we so desire and need to survive. Which tree are you choosing to eat from?