Last night our pastor began his new sermon series, titled "Thank God It's Monday!" I love it! The focus of his message was...joy! I began this blog about 5 years ago with the mission of finding out what joy is, how to get it, and how to spread it. Joy is not an emotion. It is a state of mind. It is an attitude. It is who you are at your core. Do you remember the children's song?
"I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart. Where? Down in my heart. Where? Down in my heart. I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart. Where? Down in my heart to stay."Our pastor explained that in scripture the word "heart" can be interchanged with "spirit" or "gut." Our society tends to use the word "heart" when describing feelings. But having joy is not a feeling. It is a quality you have that leads you to make decisions about how you will react to the events in your life.
So how do you get joy? Jesus Himself explains how:
"If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15: 5b).Every day you must "remain in [His] love" (John 15:9b). Every day you must connect with Your Father, with Your big brother and Savior, and with Your comforter and counselor. Crack open the Bible. Read Psalms. Read John. Read Ephesians and Galatians. Just get in there. Talk to God. He's always ready to listen. But also listen to what He wants to say to you. Get still. Get quiet. And listen.
Joy comes from knowing that God has you in the palm of His hand, in the shelter of His wing, no matter what circumstance in which you find yourself. "[I]n all our troubles my joy knows no bounds" (2 Corinthians 7:4b). Not long before I began this blog, my mother died suddenly under horribly unpleasant circumstances. I haven't figured out this whole thing called life, but fortunately, I had learned by then that I needed to connect with God daily so I wouldn't lose my mind or the joy that I had recently figured out I had. And, perhaps this was stupid, but I even told Satan that I would never renounce my faith and trust in God, no matter what evil came into my life. Whew. I guess he wanted to test me on that; the past few years have been quite difficult.
But they've also taught me more and more about joy. And my joy has grown, has become stronger, more stable, less susceptible to life's storms. My house is built on rock, baby, not sand.
The past few years have been hard for my family for a number of reasons. This past weekend I traveled to San Antonio, where my family lives, because my maternal grandfather's health began to deteriorate further. Not a pleasant reason for a trip. But during the trip I was told some delightful news. And as emotionally draining as last weekend was, I am thankful for the time there because God showed me powerfully how important it is to develop and nurture relationships with those you love and who love you. And sometimes family isn't the ones who gave birth to you; your family is those who give you life. As our pastor put it, "Joy is the essence of life." Figure out who leads you to discover real life and invest your time in those folks. If you can't list very many, I encourage you to seek relationships within a church body who does a lot of work in your community for those in need. I don't mean they support a couple of missionaries overseas and that's it. I mean the churches who meet people right in your part of the world and do something to help and empower people.
We're all wired differently, and reading has always been easy for me; it's how I learn things, process my own thoughts and ideas. So I feel pretty comfortable gleaning wisdom through scripture reading. Prayer, on the other hand...well, I haven't gotten that one quite figured out yet. I suppose I haven't set much time aside for it. Oh, I'll shoot out the "arrow" prayers: "God, please help so-and-so do well in surgery today," "God, help me not to kill that student in fourth period today," etc. But deep, intimate prayer? Haven't experienced it much myself.
At the beginning of the school year, I began walking for about 20 minutes after work. Good exercise (which I hadn't had in years!), good way to transition from work life to home life. What's also nice is the location: the indoor walking track at our church. So I walk past the youth classrooms and youth ministers' offices -- it's lovely to be in a building whose purpose is to serve God. So I'd been consistent about walking for about 3 weeks. It was nice being in the church, and I'd think about my day, my students, my family as I walked. Then one day it finally hit me: What about praying for a different person or group of people for each lap around the track? So I started praying. And let me tell you, it was AWESOME! Haven't prayed like that in quite a long time. I think sometimes we need structure to our thinking, praying, worshiping. And then of course other times, we need no structure. But I think we as human beings need reminders. When I was in college, a girl in the Christian organization of which I was a member suggested that each time we checked our mailbox, we pray for a specific person. So, think of a routine you perform daily and see if you can integrate prayer into that routine.
And pray for me. I am praying for you. And recite every day, as our pastor instructed us, "Live well. Love much. Laugh often."
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