Tasting JOY!

      I live in a place where a favorite pasttime of many is "wine-tasting" tours...going to various wineries to sample their products. The object is not the tasting,of course, but finding something you like and buying more. It's like Costco with samples of food spread throughout the store, where you can have a full meal by the time you're done shopping!
      There's an old song by Bill Gaither that starts:  "I have tasted of freedom; I can see where He's leading, for shackles can hold me no more." Those words have been going around in my head this week, with one change: "I have tasted of joy."
     My joy journey started a long time ago, with an inner desire for joy. I now know God created me that way. He made me for JOY! And along the way I've tasted some JOY...

• The birth of my children
• Making deep, lasting friendship with people around the world
• Watching God change lives when people meet Jesus
• Listening to all 5 of my delightful grandchildren
• Living near Mt. Adams and Mt. Rainier
• Sitting by the Straits of Juan de Fuca listening to the gulls and surf

     Those joy-tastings haven't been powerful enough, in and of themselves, to sustain me through the trials. All my life I've been looking for more and more real joy. And I am now experiencing it more consistently...even in tough stuff.
     This week people I know were devasted by losing their jobs; a child of good friends was attacked; people struggled with relationships and pain. And when I woke this morning, I still felt joy, and I know there's more to come!
     Does this make YOU hungry for real JOY?
   

I Need JOY STRENGTH to Be Mature; How About You?

     I did not want to commit myself to a 6 week study with a group of 5 other leaders training to lead groups on Living From the Heart Jesus Gave You. I knew what would happen. I would have to confront some sticky things in my life. I would have to ask someone to pray for me. I would have to let go of some things. But I did it, because I knew it was good for me, and it was time.
    The first time I saw a chart in the book, I realized I was quite immature in some areas of my life. I mean, I'm 61, for goodness' sake! I've gone through a few things in my life and survived. But I'm learning how low to non-existent was my JOY STRENGTH, and I was easily thrown backwards into depression and sadness...and emotional eating.
     So, I'm working on adding joy strength that will help me be able to weather the new and old tough places...to enable me to do the next hard stuff, whatever is needed for health and wholeness, and be able to return to joy.
     Here's what happened yesterday: I had a project at work and found myself at my desk, reading the material I had to summarize and put in a report, and feeling a great urge to eat, not work! I grabbed a notepad and wrote at the top: Why do I want to eat instead of work?
1. Because I don't know exactly how to do what I need to on this project.
2. It's a complicated story to condense and it's hard to do.
3. I want to do work that is fun and easy.
At the bottom of the page I wrote:  MATURITY?
     Then I had a new idea and quickly completed the project, and it was pretty good.    
     How simple to do...but how stuck I get!  
     Maybe you don't have issues about tackling challenges at work. But what about the challenging issues of your marriage or your relationships with your kids? What about doing the hard work of forgiving someone who has hurt you? What about the work of joining a community of people who love you, will walk with you, and who need you to walk with them in healing some of their old hurts?
     WE ARE MADE FOR JOY and we can find WHOLENESS IN COMMUNITY. I'm learning; will you join me?

Joy-Filled Friends

    Job is a book many people avoid, but I find fascinating. (I think it belongs in the "poetry" kind of writing...you can ask me what I think that means, but it's not my point!) I don't particularly like the way it starts with God and Satan making deals about Job's very life--rather off-putting!
     After all the tragedies in Job's life, three "friends" came: Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar, and for 7 days and nights they sat with him in silence, "because they saw how great his suffering was." True friends! When Job complained of his situation, the friends began to try to make Job understand what they believed to be true: Job must have sinned to receive such terrible consequences in this life. Their religion and culture taught that God gives us what we deserve, and if we are in agony, we need to repent as we must surely have sinned egregiously. Job continued to claim his innocence, which only increased the rhetoric from his friends.
    In the middle of all of the negative, there is a ray of sunshine when Bildad says, "He will once again fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy." (8:21) Bildad makes this statement as a promise if Job will only confess his sin and repent. 
    In my search for joy, I have gone this route, analyzing my behavior, my thoughts, my motives, and confessing, repenting. Sometimes I experienced joy, but I didn't live there long. I have learned I needed to deal with long-standing, core trauma and pain before there was room for joy. My behavior, motives and thoughts are directly related to that trauma and pain...the ways I figured out how to cope with life situations.
    Bildad was right --- God does fill my mouth with laughter and my lips with shouts of joy - as I receive more and more of His healing touch.
    Yippee!!!!

Weeping and Shouting Together

     As I get ready for worship today, this reference grabs me: Ezra 3:11b-13. 

     Background: The Temple had been pretty much destroyed when the people of God were taken into captivity.This holy place was so important to theIsraelites; it was part of their identity. Is it possible it had become more important than the God for whom it was built? Whatever the case, God allowed it to be destroyed. The people were thrown into a situation of total dependence on Him and not on a place.
     When the time was right, God raised up Ezra and others who would go back and inspire rebuilding. When the foundation was completed,

“Then all the people gave a great shout, praising the Lord because the foundation of the Lord's Temple had been laid. But many of the older priests, Levites, and other leaders who had seen the first Temple wept aloud when they saw the new Temple's foundation. The others, however, were shouting for joy. The joyful shouting and weeping mingled together in a loud noise that could be heard far in the distance.”

     Were some weeping for joy because a new Temple was being constructed? Probably, but other were likely sad at the loss of the old. Some were simply shouting for joy as the future opened before them. All of them TOGETHER, allowing grieving and joy to mingle in the praises of God's people.

     At times I become impatient with those who need more time to grieve. I can see what the future could be, and want to shout for joy when 1 step is taken towards that goal. I can become critical and judgmental of those who do want effective ministry to continue in new ways, but seem to be continually weeping for the past.  

     Jesus lived in time and space, learning about and appreciating the foundations of His Jewish faith. Then He lived out this relationship with His Father in a way that many didn't understand or appreciate. His joy at the new way opening up for the people of God was obvious in Luke 10:21:

"Then Jesus was filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit and said, 'O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding the truth from those who think themselves so wise and clever, and for revealing it to the childlike. Yes, Father, it pleased you to do it this way.'"

     New ways, new things...may bring weeping or shouting for joy! Let it happen together, and as we offer radical grace and love to each other, may it make a difference to our world!

       

  

It's TIME for Joy!

    I bought a new Bible recently... my duct-taped one (someone once called my "redneck Bible") has served me well, but I wanted something that was bound a little better. I purchased a New Living Translation Study Bible, with tons of great "extras." Honestly it does look like one of those BIG BLACK BIBLES we joked about being 'Thumped' by!
    I've been thinking, writing, praying about, and studying Joy for some time, so I decided I wanted to do a word study on it. The first thing I did was to go to the Dictionary/ Concordance in the back of this Bible and began looking up all the Joy references. I didn't just jot down the verse, but looked at the context and keywords and put those in my document.
    I'm not even finished yet with this part...but it has been so exciting and inspiring. It has lifted my spirits in new ways. I will be blogging about some of the amazing nuggets I've found in days to come. I welcome your comments as you read!

A New Joy Adventure

     This morning several people are meeting at my house for the first of 6 weeks of preparing ourselves to lead study groups on the book, The Life Model: Living From the Heart Jesus Gave You. Before we lead other people in a study, we want to do the work ourselves. Well, "want to" may not be the proper phrase..."need to" is better. Because honestly, I'm not sure I want to!
     I have discovered this about myself: I do work on issues in my life and start to feel better and get better. So I kind of get comfortable, and stop when I get to some core issues I don't really want to deal with.
     It's kind of like when you start taking an antibiotic, and you feel better, so you stop taking it, and then get sicker!
     I am an "isolator" when I am hurting. I don't like to ask for help. I don't really want to answer to anyone else. The book deals with this issue and says that real healing is designed by God to take place most often in community, where we make ourselves accountable to other people, and where we give and receive JOY.
     I am excited and yet filled with some trepidation. I'll let you know how it goes during the next 6 weeks.
    
     

Unexpected Blessings

    Tonight only a couple people were free for Discovery Bible Study and decided they wanted to go ahead and cancel. So instead, I went to see Marvin, taking along a great Fuji apple.
    After helping him with a couple important things, I sat down to help him with the apple -- which means to keep him from stuffing as much as he possibly can in his mouth, which inhibits chewing and swallowing! He said some silly things at which we both laughed.
    I read to him from Psalm 63. It describes the pslamist's deep longing for God. Then we went to Philippians, where it says things like, "Do all things without complaining or arguing,"  "Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything." Paul promises if we do that we will receive the peace of God which will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
    Marvin did his "crying face" and then he said, "I always feel sorry for myself." Then we prayed together, and he started praying out loud. In the middle of his halting prayer, he thanked God for Huntington's Disease. We prayed for our city, for our friends in the police force, for the gang families in our community. After we were done, he thanked me for reading and praying with him. It made him feel better.
    As I drove home, I felt a little sad. But I am thankful for God's strength and blessings in these days and that we can share as much as we do. 
    Did you have any unexpected blessings today?  Tell someone about them and brighten their day too.

Kicking and Screaming on the Inside

    Do you ever make progress in an area of your life and feel more freedom, more joy, and then just get comfortable there? Obviously I do. In fact, I've been stuck at my presesnt "joy level" for some time...on this recent leg of the journey. I received some healing from a very old wound, and felt so good. Then I became satisfied with that. "Enough, Lord...that's good. Let's stop there."
    This morning He seemed to be telling me, "I can't leave you there. We're not done yet."
    So in a week I'm going to join 4 other women and possibly 2 men studying about Living From the Heart Jesus Gave You, in order to lead other small groups. As I worked on the first assignment, I saw why I need to do this. It is humbling and frightening. I am doing this kicking and screaming on the inside, but knowing it's His plan for me.
    But the Lord let me know it is His love that won't let me sit back and be stuck where I am. He loves me too much for that. He also let me know that there's so much MORE JOY ahead for me...and more freedom.
    Okay, Lord, here we go again.