HUBBLElife Episode 11. Chosing Joy- How to find light in hard moments

In a world that often confuses happiness with fleeting moments, what does it really mean to feel joy?

In this episode of Hubble Life, we explore the deeper, lasting kind of joy that isn’t dependent on circumstances—but rooted in purpose, growth, and our relationship with God.

Drawing on the truth that “men are, that they might have joy,” we talk about:

• The difference between happiness and joy
• Why joy can exist even during challenges
• How growth, struggle, and faith all play a role in experiencing true joy
• Simple ways to invite more joy into your everyday life

If you’ve ever wondered why life includes both hardship and beauty, this episode will help you see how joy is not the absence of difficulty—but the meaning found within it.

✨ You were created for joy. Let’s discover what that really means.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Welcome to Hubble Life friends. Thank you for joining me again. From the very beginning, joy was always part of the plan. It wasn't just survival. It wasn't come here and um just muck your way through it and claw and and fight. It was more than that. Part of the plan was joy. That was part of the plan. And yet, there are seasons that we feel like that's really hard to believe. Moments when life feels really heavy, uncertain, even overwhelming. And I've had a lot of those times in my life. Um, going through watching my house be sold on auction, seeing my son with his heart issues, um, wondering maybe where next job was gonna come from. Life can and does often feel overwhelming and uncertain, and it's easy to start asking, why doesn't this life feel like joy? Where can I find that? Am I doing something wrong? But what if joy was never meant to come after the hard things end? What if we're supposed to find it during those difficult times? One of the biggest shifts that we can make in this life is that joy is not the absence of difficulty, but that joy can exist during it. I think this is a a really hard thing. It's it's much easier said than done. It's so easy to say, try to find joy when life is going pretty good. It's another thing to say it when things are going hard and things are difficult. There's a powerful reminder from President Russell M. Nelson. He said this: the joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives. That means joy isn't something that we wait for when everything finally settles down, when we finally have the job we want, or we finally have the health that we've been working towards, or the money that we've been expecting. It's something that we can experience even while life is unfolding. And this is something that has to be practiced. Um, this isn't an easy thing to do, even it's difficult to figure that out and to have joy during the hard times. But think about it, you don't recognize light without darkness, you don't appreciate peace if you've never felt chaos, and you can't really fully feel joy without having known pain. I this happens to me a lot when I don't have very good teeth, and so once in a while, uh when I'm due for another root canal or whatever, I have so much pain in my mouth, and I think I am so grateful when my teeth don't hurt. And then life goes on and I forget to be grateful for that. But when it happens, I really, really appreciate when my teeth don't hurt. And that's the same thing. Without knowing the bad, we'd never know the good. Opposition doesn't take joy away, it actually gives it meaning. Which means if you feel pain, if you are feeling pain, or if you've ever felt pain, if you've walked through something really hard, you are actually more capable of deep joy, not less. Because as far as you feel it on one side, you are capable of feeling the opposite in just as much, right? So if you feel this much pain, you can feel this much joy. I'm I talked about this in the last episode that I'm getting ready to send my daughter off on a mission. And right now, there are so many emotions going on. There's love and excitement and also pain. And this is one of those things where I feel a little bit bipolar. I'm so excited for her, and I'm I'm anticipating that the lessons that she'll learn and the experiences that she'll have. And I'm also sad and worried about the lessons she's gonna learn or the lessons I'm gonna learn without her, and it's not easy. This is something I'm working on, is trying to find joy in the midst of all the chaos and crazy and pain and and sorrow. And here's the thing: there's joy in watching her step into becoming who she needs to be and into her mission. There's joy, know that she there's joy in knowing that she's gonna grow. Uh, she needs this. This will be really good for her. And there's joy in seeing purpose unfold, even even when it's hard. And you know what? That's when something clicked. Like joy and difficulty are opposites, but they can exist together. We don't have to be rid of one in order to feel the other. But here's the thing: joy is often very, very quiet. It's different than happiness, it's different than celebration, it's different than um partying, it's it's something different than that, it's something deeper. Sometimes we expect joy to be obvious. We want it to be big or constant, we want it to be easy to recognize, but often joy is really quiet. It shows up in small moments. Maybe it's a conversation, maybe it's a feeling of peace, maybe in quiet moments during prayer. Maybe it's when a prayer is answered, a moment of connection with a loved one or with your Heavenly Father. And if you're not looking for joy, you can miss it. Because here's the thing: you will find what you focus on. Joy isn't always allowed, but it is present, and it's deeply connected to what I just said, focus, right? It's where we place our attention. We we end up seeing what we choose to see, right? So as soon as I bought my my car, um, I began to see that car everywhere because I was focused on it. Um and that's the same with joy. Wherever we place our attention, that's where what we'll see. So if we place our attention on joy and focus on joy, no matter what the circumstances, we'll be able to see that. President Dieter F. Oekdorf said this: in spite of hardship, heartache, and disappointment, we can still be joyful. Not because life is easy, because really it's not. It's not easy for any of us, but because we're anchored in something deeper, we choose to focus on Christ. And when we focus on Him and we focus on joy, we focus on the meaning of what we're going through, maybe lessons that we're learning, where we focus on the growth that's happening, joy begins to take root. And here's the other thing: what you feed grows. And this is something that I've thought about a lot that what you feed grows. So if you are feeding joy, joy will start to grow. If you are feeding fear, fear will grow. Whatever you feed grows. So as you feed joy, it begins to take root, even in imperfect circumstances. And that happens with the help of our Savior Jesus Christ. We weren't meant to just barely make it through scrape by in this life. We're meant to experience joy, but that means we have to focus on it. Not someday, not when everything is perfect, but here in the middle of our story. And it's something that we need to practice. It's it's not about perfect perfection, it's about practicing. It's practicing joy even in the heart, even in the becoming. So don't wait for life to feel perfect, to believe that joy is possible. Again, I this really is easier said than done. So today, just try to find joy in one thing. I love um President Irene invited us to a long time ago get a journal where we wrote down how we saw the hand of Christ in our life, the hand of God in our life every day. And to me, those go hand in hand with finding joy, right? How is our Heavenly Father helping us today? Um, don't wait for life to be perfect to write down the things you're grateful for, the things that brought you joy. Start today. Find something, just one little thing that you can find joy in. Believe that joy is possible because it already is. As we have understanding about what joy is, that joy is not something that comes after all of the heartache, but it's something that we can find during it. It's it's more quiet, it's more subtle, it's something that we look for. Have an understanding of that. Seek for it, and then be believing. Believe that you were meant to have joy in this life, that it's not meant to only be difficult. We are meant to have joy and then live extraordinary. I hope that this week you have an extraordinary week. Maybe for this entire week, have a little notebook and write down three things that brought you joy every single day. Start to feed joy, that it will find root and begin to grow. Until next time, you guys, have joy, live a Hubble life, have understanding, be believing, and live extraordinary.