Joy

This past summer my oldest daugher, Maddie, discovered how to make rainbows with the water hose. She would take the hose and put the nozzle onto the mist setting and spray wildly into the sunshine. It took some practice but eventually she discovered how to find the rainbows around our yard. Maddie also found rainbows at the water park and even at the Zoo one day. She was just enraptured by the beauty of these perfect rainbows there were hidden everywhere. Every found secret rainbow unleashed a new sense of Joy! When she asked me how it worked I explained that when the water and the sunlight mixed, we would be able to see all of the rainbows that God has hidden for us. It got me thinking about what a wonderful God we serve that He would hide Joy in the most currious places.

So moves me to my point~Joy. There has been something strange happening to me lately that I can only assume is a God thing. Joy. I see Joy everywhere. And what I mean by that is I see the word Joy everywhere. I was reading a new book this week and there was a baby named Joyce they called Joy, my daughter was singing Joy to the World and asked me to spell Joy, I found a Christmas ornament JOY and this past weekend we were at a store and I saw the word Joy at least 30 times. I started thinking about what that word meant. What is real Joy? I have this image of the Bible my mother had when I was a little girl-called "The Way". There was a woman on the cover that was looking heavenward and had this look of unexpliciable Joy on her face. I loved that picture. She was so happy and I knew it was because she was on the cover of Jesus' book. I know that was cheezzy but it made me smile as I wrote it-because it really was what I thought at the time. My love for that old Bible was shared by my mother, who read it until it literally fell apart (in my opinion the best way to see a Bible).

In my life, I don't know many times that I have felt that sort of pure Joy. I can name a few- my wedding day just before we said I do- I was consummed with so much Joy I nearly kissed my groom too soon, the first time I held Maddie, the first time I held Sydney and a couple of times when I was worshiping that I felt as if I had been physically in the presence of the Lord. And although I look at these moments as pure gifts from my loving Father I am certain that there are more moments than just these few that He has given to us. Are we missing the Joy simply because we don't look for it or is it related to our obedience and complete submission to Him? I don't think that the Bible would have mentioned it as one of the fruits of the Spirit if the Lord didn't intend on us receiving it. Unfortunately, I think we focus on love and peace way more then we ever think of Joy or patience or kindness or goodness or self-control or faithfullness or gentleness. They are all the fruits of a surrendered life but we refuse to surrender and therefore find none of them.

So maybe God is telling me to surrender- to finally find that Joy that I keep hearing about. Surrender is work though. It's funny because the word itself make you appear weak but think about it-surrender is work. It is not easy to give up your personal control and allow God to move. We don't want to repent, change, be uncomfortable. We want what we want-sometimes with only a slight consideration of what God's will is. Our will trumps God's even though the voice in the back of our head (ahem...the Holy Spirit) is telling us to re-think the situatiion. We miss out on so much Joy because we refuse to obey and ultimately surrender to the God of our life.

Well for what it is worth, I believe that Joy is like those rainbows, or one of Maddie's hidden picture games~it is everywhere~we just have to surrender and allow God to reveal it. Couldn't you use some Joy in your life? I know I could.

Joy.

Psalm 28:7
The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him.