Joy

Earlier this week, the chaplain of my Courage chapter gave a talk about joy. Joy is not an emotion that I have been feeling much of lately, unfortunately. For several weeks now, I’ve been feeling rather lonely and starved for friendship. Whenever I feel like that, it becomes very difficult for me to remain chaste because I tend to use my sexuality as a drug to eliminate negative emotions like loneliness. Of course, giving into masturbation only compounds my problems because it make me feel even more down.

I think there are a number of things I can be doing to pull myself out of the funk I find myself in. One is to just give my problems–my loneliness, my insecurities about my masculinity–over to Christ. I can’t handle these things on my own. I need to give my burdens over to the Lord and let him deal with them.

I also really need to be praying for an increase in the virtues of faith and hope. I need to be praying for the faith to really believe in the Lord’s promise of eternal life. I need to pray for the grace to really believe, with all my heart, that one day the sufferings of this world will be behind me, and I will be eternally united with Jesus Christ and experience a happiness that I’ve never known.

It is only by doing these things and remaining close to our Lord in prayer and in the sacraments that I will be able to recover my sense of joy.