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He’s Not Totally Wrong

 Billy Joel has a hit song called, “Only The Good Die Young.” It’s catchy, but it’s scandalous. If you stop dancing for five seconds, you realize it’s about enticing a young Catholic teen girl to fornicate. I didn’t write it; I am just the messenger. Yeah, Billy, if Catholic girls start much too late, they have good Dads.

Anyway, I have noticed that indeed the good do die very young sometimes. You’ve seen it often enough; people who teach you that you’re not grateful enough.

People will still decide God is a monster, and I have varying degrees of pity or sympathy, depending on those circumstances. But I understand now. I’m paying attention. Happiness is fleeting here; joy abides, and it is for others. Hand me a Coke or a Mountain Dew, I am happy. Frankly, I will probably arbitrarily decide you’re a good person. Abiding joy goes through me, even if I suffer. Nothing merely human produces abiding joy. You need a relationship with Jesus for that. “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”

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