By the Way

You Mailed That Where?

My family and I once carried postcards to a post office located 10 feet below the surface of the South Pacific.

This post office, 50 yards off the shores of Mele Island, itself off the coast of Efate Island in the Vanuatu archipelago, presents some of the challenges of most post offices—limited hours and unexpected closures— but also another unique one: the need for waterproof postcards and stamps.

We adjusted our masks and fins, swam out into Mele Bay, took deep breaths through our snorkels and dove down to the single-person fiberglass structure, only to find it empty. It was closed; it opens mostly when cruise ships dock. We swam through the kiosk several times and pretended to mail our cards. Then after our subaquatic frolic, we resurfaced, laughing, and mailed our postcards in the box on shore.

It will be hard to top that as an unusual postal experience.

But why use an underwater post office? Why go to the effort? You know why—because it’s fun! We laughed with joy through the whole impractical experience. An underwater post office—who would have thought?

The Creator of joy

As I mused on this later, I realized that our Creator has endowed us with a desire to have activities that bring excitement, pleasure and joy. We wouldn’t enjoy having fun if God hadn’t built that into us. Children’s games are about fun. Sports bring exhilaration and joy into our lives (even golf sometimes). Hiking in the mountains, watching a sunset from a beach with a loved one, a night out with friends, all can bring intense felicity.

And our loving Father wants it to be so. In fact, the Bible states that the closer we are to God, the more joy we’ll have. The psalmist said of our Creator: “In Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11). It’s not possible to have more joy than in God’s presence.

Choice and consequences

Yet we must take care how we seek to have fun. Wrong kinds of enjoyment may seem joyful at first, but bring serious consequences.

“Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth; walk in the ways of your heart, and in the sight of your eyes; but know that for all these God will bring you into judgment. Therefore remove sorrow from your heart, and put away evil from your flesh, for childhood and youth are vanity” (Ecclesiastes 11:9-10, emphasis added).

There are times in life to try new things, to seek joy in the complexities of this marvelous divine creation. There is such potential for joy. But we must know that our choices will bring consequences—judgments, good or ill. God wants us to choose wisely, with respect to His law and the laws of man as well. Then we can have fun, joy, without negative consequences.

There is much joy to be had in this life; let’s dive in! But we must also know.

Joel Meeker @JoelMeeker