Do you ever wonder . . .?

I wonder if you wonder about some of the things I wonder from time to time.

Do you ever wonder if people, as they enter the winter season of the life, go in one of two directions: either into joy and a deep sense of fulfillment or into sadness and a profound lack of fulfillment. If there is some truth to this observation, what occasions one path or the other? Scripture says the joy of the Lord is our strength and Jesus said (John 15:11) that his joy may be in us and our joy complete (full).

Do you ever wonder why it is that many people who suffer the most and live in the most oppressive countries of the world seem to have the greatest faith and are in the greatest numbers while so many people in the affluent nations of the world who seemingly have everything, every advantage, seem to have lost their faith and live in an existential malaise? Jesus also said "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven."

Do you ever wonder how it is that the more you learn about life and this world, the more you realize how little you really know? There sometimes seems to be a paradox of humility in direct proportion to wisdom accrued as one grows older. Does it seem to you as it often does to me that the paradox is that the more I learn in life the more it seems I am just getting started and there is so much more to take in, to learn, and to appreciate?