"Purveyors of Joy"<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
 
          "But there is no joy in Mudville – mighty Casey has struck out."       Ernest Thayer 1888
 
            Forbes Magazine and author Kurt Badenhauser (Jan 30, 2008) managed to irritate half the country when they published their inaugural list of "<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />America's Most Miserable Cities."
            Creating a barometer they call, "The Misery Measure" (which takes into account the established Misery Index and Misery Score), the joy busters developed a formula which gauges the poor quality of life in the nation's 150 largest metropolitan areas.
            Their criterion for misery highlighted six standards of their choosing: unemployment, personal income tax rate, commute times, weather, crime, and pollution.  A sampling of the thousands of comments posted on the Internet reveals there are a multitude of disagreements regarding what constitutes misery.
            The top ten most miserable cities (maybe that should be "bottom" ten) is highlighted by two of Michigan's struggling giants, Detroit at number one and Flint, down the freeway a few miles, at number three.
            Looking out the window at two Toyotas in the driveway produces a measure of guilt, but I don't take sole responsibility for GM's record $39 billion loss in 2007.
            Sandwiched between the two impoverished industrial cities of the North (Cleveland, the legendary "mistake by the lake," is noticeably absent from the top ten) is Stockton, Ca. Los Angeles (misery loves company) and Modesto fall in place at seventh and eighth.
            Surprisingly, New York tumbled to fourth (worms in the Big Apple) and Chicago got dissed at sixth (Will the Cubs ever win a World Series?).  New megatropolis Charlotte hustled its way into ninth with a recent string of failures.
            Obviously, these subjective rankings rankle the local rank and file, and in many cases, justifiably so.  Who knows misery for sure?  If a job transfer came your way, would you choose Baton Rogue or Las Vegas or Wichita over Charlotte?  My guess is that you would be wearing Tar Heel blue before the weekend.
            We all possess different notions regarding the qualities of the Good Life.  One person's misery may be another's delight.  Not every fan delights in a Cowboy Superbowl trophy.
            Snow bunnies love a three-foot, thirty below blizzard in Denver.  Snow birds, on the over hand, claim Phoenix as the perfect winter wonderland.
            An Idaho family, visiting on a typical ozone red alert August Texas day, wouldn't trade their unemployment check for a nightshift at the local cement plant.  They appreciate breathing.
            I've met miserable people in beautiful places and beautiful people, inside and out, in miserable places.  Miserable has more to do with the state of mind and heart than the state in which you live.
            Forbes recognizes some of this reality when they define misery "as a state of great unhappiness and emotional distress."
            The mistake they make is advocating external factors as the primary ingredients determining misery and happiness.  It's a shallow review.
            An ancient commentator on the human condition provided a more accurate analysis when he proclaimed true joy is an inside job.  Listen again to the words of the Apostle Paul when he wrote to one of the world's most miserable cities of his day:
            "I don't speak from want; for I have learned to be content in whatever state (circumstance) I am.  I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.  I can do all things through Him who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:11-13).
            The man who shared this divine insight is the same fellow who spent time in a miserable dungeon in the Philippians' not-so-fair city.  After a false charge trumped up by the cities' profiteers brought severe beating to him and his preaching companion Silas, the authorities threw them in the inner prison, fastened their feet in stocks, and stationed a guard nearby to torment them.
            The historical record of the Book of Acts (16:25) states that about midnight they responded to their harsh mistreatment by praying and singing hymns of praise to God at a volume that echoed throughout the chambers!  "Thank-you Jesus," they sang!
            In words and deeds we learn from the old preacher that situations like employment, climate, toxic waste disposal, and high taxes ultimately have little to do with personal joy.  Varied living conditions may produce feelings of happiness or misery, but true joy transcends environmental issues.
            Joy is an affair of the heart.  It results from a right relationship with God.  The joy of the Lord allows us to experience the good life regardless of our station.  Joy is an emotion evoked by a sense of well-being and good fortune which can ultimately be secured only by the love of God.
            In many ways and many places, the Bible encourages us "to delight in the Lord."
          Paul exhorts the Philippians and us to count our many blessings and rejoice in our favored status as the children of God:
            "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!  Let your sweet reasonableness be known to all men.  The Lord is near.  Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus" (Phil 4:4-7).
            Christianity, despite constant abuses, remains a benefit-based religion, and outside of the many blessings of redemption and eternal life, real joy might be the most tangible grace resulting from living by faith.
            There are many reasons we can feel miserable; the Forbes six is just the tip of the iceberg.  Their select list doesn't even consider relationships, health, high gas prices, extended political campaigns, education costs, bad hair, flabby arms, wrinkles, the theory of evolution, gloomy pundits, cloned beef, and Britney's meltdown.
            If we look around, down, or across, and not up, it's bleak.  There is no sweet misery.
            The lyrical hillbillies of "Hee Haw" had it right: "Gloom, despair and agony on me.  Deep dark depression, pain and misery…"
            They robbed the tune from the preacher of Ecclesiastes, who examined life without the joyful presence of the Lord, and concluded, "it's futility, all futility!"  He advised, against the backdrop of the inevitable doom and gloom offered in this world alone, "that the day of one's death is better than the day of one's birth."
          Joy refuses to give sorrow and sadness the last word.            Only the permanent joy of living by faith in God's amazing grace can combat the onslaught of negativity the world heaps upon us.  We must live each day with the song of the Psalmist in our hearts and on our tongues: "Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our day