Joy Is Closer Thank You Think

A few weeks ago, I had the chance to sit down with Kate Bowler.

Many of you know her story. She is a professor at Duke University, a gifted writer and thinker who, in the middle of a beautiful life, was diagnosed with Stage IV cancer while raising a young child.

What makes Kate so compelling is not simply her courage. It is her honesty. She refuses the shallow clichés people often offer around suffering. She does not pretend pain is easy or that everything happens for a neat reason. Instead, she speaks about how fragile life really is, and yet how joy still somehow appears. Not because suffering disappears, but because joy was never meant to depend on perfection.

That struck me deeply because I think many of us have unknowingly postponed joy. We tell ourselves we will finally rest, breathe, or enjoy life once things calm down. But life rarely becomes fully manageable. There is always another responsibility, another pressure, another uncertainty waiting around the corner.

Years ago, Henri Nouwen wrote a beautiful little book called Here and Now. In it he wrote, “The spiritual life is not a life before, after, or beyond our everyday existence. No, the spiritual life can only be real when it is lived in the midst of the pains and joys of the here and now.”

That may be one of the great spiritual challenges of our lives: to actually be here. To notice this moment. This breath. This meal. This conversation. Because life is not happening someday. Life is happening now.

And joy is not something we finally experience once everything is perfect. Joy is something to be claimed and savored in the present moment.

What Kate described so beautifully is that illness changed the way she noticed ordinary life: a cup of coffee with a friend, sunlight through trees, a child laughing downstairs, a quiet morning, bread and wine, a prayer whispered at the end of the day.

Joy, she said, is often hiding in plain sight.

So do not wait for some future version of your life before you allow yourself to notice what is beautiful, holy, and good. Life is unfolding before you. God is present among you. Joy is nearer than you think.

Here and now.