You know how you read something that really “hits home”? Well, this is one of those exact things. It was so long ago that I don’t even remember where I saw it. But I cut it out. That’s right folks… not in a facebook post, not in an email or on a website but a physical piece of paper – imagine that! As you’ll read though, you’ll know it wasn’t so long ago that there weren’t computers – I’m old but not THAT old! Anyway, it was such a memorable piece that I laminated it and kept it. I’m sharing it with you, hoping that you’ll find it as precious as I have. It was written by Terry Helwig.
Sitting atop my office computer are three white, wooden building blocks.
They spell a word that has become quite meaningful to me:
they spell JOY.
Some months ago, a woman led a group of us in prayer. She encouraged us to feel joy flooding our being. “Joy is not feeling sad or happy,” she said. “Neither is it getting what we want. Joy describes our connection with God. No other emotion can take that away from us.” I loved her definition of joy and have claimed it for myself.
For many years, my late mother-in-law ended most of her letters with that one word, joy. Certainly the letters told of things that were not always happy: there were deaths, operations, setbacks. But, somehow, my mother-in-law had discovered how to feel joyful despite them.
Maybe she, too, understood that joy runs deeper than the emotional rivers of happy or sad. Joy is the vast ocean where all the rivers flow. I am learning that no matter what befalls me, I can delight in my relationship with God. Nothing can wash it away, not even the salt tears of discouragement, sadness or disappointment.
As I face the sad and happy moments of tomorrow, I cling to that one word written by my mother-in-law and uttered by the angels on the hillside 2,000 years ago: JOY!
My prayer for you today is that you may know JOY!