KEEP ON SMILING
A World War 11 song that was popular with the troops had the line: " Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag and SMILE SMILE SMILE.." Long marches and unknown futures became a little more bearable for the men as they wearily marched off to the battlefield singing as they went. It wasn't easy to keep on smiling when you knew that the next few hours might be your last or that at best you could end up in a field hospital terrribly wounded, thousands of miles away from home.
My wife was given a plaque some years ago which hangs on our kitchen wall over the stove. It simply says " A smile reflects a happy heart." Of course that is not always true is it? Sometimes it is a forced smile. We just decide that we have to grin and bear it, whatever the pain. We mask our true feelings, put on a smile and get on with whatever it is we have to do.
It might be more accurate to say" A smile reflects a joyous heart", for unlike happiness which is dependent upon favorable external conditions, joy is something that is much deeper and really reflects an inward state of the heart and soul. When Jesus was in the Upper Room at the last supper, and facing Calvary He said to the disciples:"Be of good cheer." What was about to happen to Him did not quench His joy which had its foundation in His relationship with the Father. He said" I have overcome the world."
The late Harry Emerson Fosdick wrote: " The men who have most cheered their fellows are not the men of untroubled lives, but those whose spirits were too glad to be submerged by sorrow, men like Robert Louis Stevenson who, exiled to Samoa for his health, and sure to die there soon, prayed "Give us to awaken with smiles; give us to labor smiling; ; and as the sun lightens the world, so let our loving kindness make bright this house of habitation." Such men have been the joy-bringers of the race, and Jesus is the Master of them. Someone has written, " Make sure you have at least one laugh or smile every day. Even if you are disappointed in something, you won't lose the ability to smile, laugh and see the humour in things. It's a great gift, it's free, and it can happen at any time!" Jesus said" " My joy I give unto you...and no man taketh it away. And with that joy comes a smile that radiates and is infectious. A Boston newspaper once printed this item:"The day was dark and gloomy, but Phillip Brooks walked down through Newspaper Row and all was bright." The world needs more Phillip Brooks or perhaps it just needs more of a smile from us, a smile that has its foundation in our personal relationship with Jesus Christ the giver of abundant life and unspeakable joy.
