Joy Let Loose

January 20, 2019

Top 5 Scriptures to Turn My Attitude Around (#goals)

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Well, I let the cat out of the bag and told you my word for 2019 – Happy. 

Risky, I know.

Because what if I wake up on the wrong side of the bed? Or what if the dog chews up my shoes? Or what if I argue with my husband and I just want to be mad? Then you’ll know I’m breaking my New Year’s Resolution. Ugh.

Is it really like that? Can I just resolve to be happy? Well, in my last post I talked a little about the strategic element to pursuing happiness. And now I’m going to let you in a little on one actual day-to-day strategy.

What can you and I both do to help us to be happy?

If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy, and inspires your hopes.

Andrew Carnegie

Goal #1 to being happy: Fill Up with Good Things

If you’ve taken a turn around Joy Let Loose at all, you’ll know I love Jesus. If you aren’t sure whether you do, that’s ok. It’s still cool you’re here. But I need you to know that Jesus is always my filter. He’s always my lens. (P.S. If you haven’t read anything else on my site, hang out awhile. Check out previous posts in all my menus. You’ll find stuff about family, about trauma, about moving, jewelry, and even my choice to use essential oils. There’s a little bit of everything here, but I see it all through Jesus. And I’d love to sit and have coffee with you for a bit.)

So anyway, my very first goal – filling up with good things – has to do with Him. And specifically, the Bible. Because I have come to trust the Scriptures to turn my attitude around.

Confession time:

I’ve been in ministry for 20+ years – Churches, Bible Colleges, Discipleship Groups, Youth Groups…that’s a long time to be a spiritual leader. And most of that time, I’ve been a faithful student of the Bible. However, there are seasons where I have fallen off the wagon, so to speak. Where I allow my busy-ness or my tired-ness or my sad-ness or my confident-ness 🙂 to distract me from what I know deep down is an ultimate priority. Because I allow them to pull me away from spending time reading the Bible. So I can tell you from firsthand experience how much of a difference it makes in my level of happiness when I choose to fill up with good things – I need the Scriptures to turn my attitude around.

Renew Your Mind

Paul tells the Romans not to conform to the patterns of the world, but to be transformed by the renewing of their minds. (Romans 12:2) So how do we renew our minds? I believe one primary way to renew our minds so that we do not conform to the patterns of our world, and so that we are able to test and approve God’s perfect and pleasing will, is to read and meditate on scripture.

  • Scripture is a window into God’s heart. It is the primary way God chose to show us who He is. And it is abundant in the grace and love of our heavenly Father.
  • Scripture is a mirror. It reveals to us who we are. And also who God has created us to be. It is direct, vulnerable, kind, and transformative.
  • Scripture is living and active. It changes the way that we think and make our decisions.
  • Scripture is a perspective-changer. Like a brand-new lens, it helps us to see things with a Kingdom focus. It helps us to discover what God is doing through our circumstances, and not to focus on the circumstances alone.
  • Scripture sustains us. The Holy Spirit often uses it to remind us of truth in difficult moments. The more we are filled up with it, the more opportunity He has to fuel us with it in our day-to-day life.

Filling up with good things: the goal that commands my thoughts, liberates my energy, and inspires my hope.

With that in mind, then, who’s in? I’m choosing to depend on Scriptures to turn my attitude around. So do you want to join me to meditate on these 5 short passages over the next 15 days? I plan to focus on one Scripture for three days straight. I will read it, cross-reference it, write it out, memorize it, talk about it, and sit silently asking God to help me live into it. And I’m pretty confident this will help me on my journey as I choose #happy.

Join me!

So let me know by clicking here if you are joining me while I’m learning these 5 Scriptures to turn my attitude around. And if you do, I’ll send you a few encouragements along the way.

Fill Up With Good Things Download

What about you – what’s your word for 2019? Have you created a strategy to see it become a reality in your life? Tell us in the comments below!

Posted in: Journey, Soul care
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April 2, 2018

REVIEW Unforced Rhythms: Why Daily Devotions Aren’t for All of Us

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Today I’m excited to review  Unforced Rhythms: Why Daily Devotions Aren’t for All of Us by Gwen Jackson. In a nutshell, she nailed it. 

Read this book.

 

But perhaps you’d like to hear a little more about why I would recommend it so highly.

 I have spent much of my life battling the feeling that I don’t quite fit in. In each and every group I have been part, I have seen incongruence between myself and everybody else. From my earliest memories, I had a foreboding sense that I was different. Oh, the contexts changed, yes, and with them, my awareness of what was different about me.

Well, Gwen Jackson wrote very clearly of one of these contexts where I had felt different for a long time: how, as a Christian, to engage with God. She spells it out clearly: there is no one cut-and-dried pattern of nurturing relationship with God.

Quiet time

Take me back 19 years to the point in my life where I surrendered myself to the Lord. All of a sudden, I was a new believer. And I had many well-meaning people around me urging me that the life of all believers includes “quiet time” with the Lord. Preferably in the dark hours of the morning. Always with a Bible and heartfelt prayer, and eternal eagerness to grow. Ideally with a journal at hand to capture all the amazingly powerful things to be discovered each and every time.

It didn’t take too long to discover how forced this felt for me.

Fast forward several years, and I finally seemed to find a rhythm. I found a season and a stride where I discovered closeness with the Lord. It wasn’t structured necessarily, no neat verses and choruses, but it was rich. Because it wasn’t always the same.  Sometimes it was out under the open sky; other times in the quiet of a sleeping house. Sometimes it was in the tune I was making on my keys, and other times in the chaotic noise and laughter of a crowd around my table.

And sometimes it did involve a quiet morning moment, the bible, a journal and prayer. And it was all good. Even if I didn’t meet the Lord every morning at the same time, same place, He and I were okay with that – I was still meeting Him in a way that matched my internal rhythms.

A Provocative Tagline

I sat with Gwen at a retreat in the mountains of Haiti last May when she was wrestling with the tagline for her new book. Some had suggested that her idea might seem a little too provocative, or controversial. But I’m glad she stuck with it. Because “Why Daily Devotions Aren’t for All of Us,” is the crux of this book. Even before I read it, I knew I’d want to review Unforced Rhythms when it was released.

I recently caught up with this author again and asked her a few questions.

From the Author
  • Elizabeth: Who should read this book?
  • Gwen : Anybody who is struck by the subtitle, “Why Daily Devotions Aren’t for All of Us”, will want to read Unforced Rhythms. It’s a liberating read, especially for those who have struggled with daily devotions like I did. But, those who find daily devotions meaningful will also find the book interesting. They will realize not everybody fits into the same spiritual formation box as those who love a daily routine. Just like personality differences, people beat to a different life rhythm. The book appeals to young adults and seniors alike.
  • Elizabeth: Why should believers read Unforced Rhythms and how might the book impact their journey of joy?
  • Gwen: Unforced Rhythms gives permission to believers to connect with God in the freedom of their own natural Life Rhythm. For too long, believers have been confined to morning and/or evening devotions, believing that having daily devotions was a measurement of Christian maturity. Certainly, spending time with God, in the Word, and in prayer, are important elements to spiritual growth and life change, but the daily part can feel legalistic, defeating, and tedious. Many non-daily people feel like they’re going through the motions or checking off a duty on their spiritual to-do list. Readers will find themselves identifying with one of the three Life Rhythms described in the book. Once they discover their unique Life Rhythm, they will be free to connect with God without the guilt and condemnation that often plagues believers.
Recommended!
I’m so thankful that Gwen was brave enough to write from her own wrestling, and that I was able to review Unforced Rhythms. She has helped me to find confidence in my own Life Rhythm as a seasonal person. This not only frees me from discouragement that my relationship with the Lord doesn’t necessarily look the same as someone else’s, it also inspires me to experience the Lord in new ways.
It is always so helpful to be able to hear of someone else’s similar journey. I happily recommend this book to you whether you’ve known Jesus for a long time, or you’ve just met. I recommend it whether you are eighteen or eighty. Because I believe you will find it a compelling, unique, and liberating voice in your spiritual formation.
Review Unforced Rhythms

“God meant time with him to be a joy-filled journey, not a list of rules to follow. Find freedom, peace, and joy in
the “unforced rhythms of his grace.”  – Gwen Jackson
Previous Book Review: The Joy Model, by Jeff Spadafora
Elizabeth Joy
Posted in: Soul care
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February 3, 2018

Finding Joy in the Unexpected by Thinking Outside the Box

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I’ve been looking for it all year, but I seem lately to be finding  joy in the unexpected by thinking outside the box. When I first started to write for Joy Let Loose, I think I tethered it to something I believed it ought to be. I’m a believer in Jesus, and I believe our joy is found in God. And I wanted everything I wrote to be a proof text of that.

God = Joy, so I thought that  Joy Let Loose must be very specifically tied to Scriptural truth in the form of passages, devotions, prayers etc. I have loved every piece I have written here for you over the last year, and all of these things are GOOD.

Finding Joy in the Unexpected

But God has been nudging at me to open my peripheral vision a bit. I think He’s inviting me to pull my head out of the pages just a little, and to get outside of my mind a bit. I think He is asking me to unwrap the gift of joy that He shares through the tangible world around me, in people, laughter, health, and beauty.

 

And I’m wrestling with this. In fact, I’ve resisted publishing anything on Joy Let Loose for several weeks because I’m finding joy in the unexpected, and I don’t know how to tell you about it.

Please Pray?

So, dear readers, would you please pray? I want to respond well to the Lord, and continue finding  joy in the unexpected by looking outside the box. I might be writing about some different kinds of things in the future. But it will be amidst the same kinds of pieces I’ve been writing all along. And this may seem bigger to me than it will for you, but I still would love your prayers moving forward.

Where are you finding  joy these days?

Elizabeth Joy

 

Posted in: Joy sightings, Soul care
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November 29, 2017

Advent Joy for Sharing this Season

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As we round the bend of November and Thanksgiving, I love that we immediately head towards December, with its Advent Joy for sharing this season. Our family looks forward to Christmas, but we have to be careful to slow down and lean in to the Advent season first, even as Christmas trappings swirl all around us. Our cultural Christmas screams that the holiday is already here in music, parties, and lights, but the Christian story of waiting is still unfolding in the quiet places.

Even in Christian circles, prioritizing Advent has become counter-cultural. As a worship leader, I can run headlong into aaallllll the stuff that is Christmas in church ministry, OR I can continually remind myself that my congregation needs the Advent wait too, just like my family does.

So, what is Advent?

Advent is actually the beginning of the Christian calendar year. It is the “reset” button for those who pattern their lives around the Story of Christ. And it is a time to reflect on what the anticipation for the Messiah was like 2000 years ago, and how much they needed God to send the Light of Life into a world of darkness. It also helps us to consider how our dark world still needs the breaking-in of Jesus, and to look forward to His return. Check out Seedbed for some helpful Advent history.

So, how does a family, or a church family, lean into Advent Joy in the middle of a Christmas-crazed culture?

Today I’m sharing 6 ways we can engage in the season of Advent this year.

6 Ways to Advent-Adventure this December
  1. Share Joyful Blessings:

I actually started this one early. Beginning at Thanksgiving, I wanted to begin to look ahead to what Advent Joy there would be. Our church Life Group was hosting a “Friendsgiving” on the Saturday prior to Thanksgiving. (If you’ve never done a Friendsgiving, it is wellI worth your time and effort!)

Our Life Group (15 adult members in all) invited family, friends and neighbors to a huge pot luck Thanksgiving dinner at our home. These could be people who already know Jesus, or people who don’t. All are welcome. Each LG member brought a portion of the meal, and were able to seat all 42 people who came! At one point, several of us shared why we are grateful, including how Christ had transformed us. 

My mother-in-law had given me  101 Blessings of Joy Cards – A Box of Blessings back in August, as an encouragement on my  joy-journey.This seemed like a perfect time to bring them out. Each card holds 2 blessings, quotes, or Scripture verses (one on each side), to encourage others in their  joy.

So, I decided to use these joy blessings in my table settings, drawing attention to them as we prayed for our meal. We encouraged people to read them and even use them as conversation starters. I know for me, this helped me begin to focus on the upcoming Advent Joy season. And these will also serve nicely at table settings all throughout the month of December.

2. Daily Advent Joy Readings

I love to shift my focus in the month of December. I try to be purposeful about what I read that helps me to engage with Advent Joy. This year, I picked up John Piper’s The Dawning of Indestructible Joy: Daily Readings for Advent, an inexpensive little paperback that I sense is loaded with power. Piper’s reason for writing it was that He was praying for an experience of Christ’s fullness. Wow, do I ever want that too!!

That is my prayer for you this Christmas–that you would experience the fullness of Christ; that you would know in your heart the outpouring of grace upon grace; that the glory of the only Son from the Father would shine into your heart to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ; that you would be amazed that Christ can be so real to you. – J. Piper

Though I haven’t yet started the readings–I’ll begin on December 3rd, the first Sunday of Advent–I anticipate that the Lord will use these in my life.

3. Advent Wreath

As our family grows, we find it increasingly important (and difficult!) to make space for family meals around the table. Throughout the month of December, we will use our mealtime together to light Advent candles in our wreath. The Dawning of Indestructible Joy may serve us well for readings in the evenings, to focus us all together. But there are other valuable resources as well. 

Last year, we used Kaylene yoder’s Names of Jesus Advent Pack on as many evenings as we could be together, and found them very helpful. I wrote about it here. We would accompany the readings with the lighting of candles, adding one more each week of Advent.

I also recently purchased Seedbed’s Reset: Advent Devotions for the Whole Family, which may become the backbone of our family time this year.

4. Advent Adventures

This morning, I posted the first of 4 blog posts I am doing for Waterline Church, where I am the Director of Relational Arts. We are calling these our Advent Adventures.

We were looking for a way to help our church family engage with the Advent Joy of the season. So I am creating this series with the twofold purpose. They will teach more about Advent. And they will give people (of all ages) tangible “adventures” to take. We pray that we will all slow down and experience the joy and hope of the season. Especially if we do these simple activities with our families and friends. I’d invite you to head over here to see if they might be activities you could incorporate into your December family activities.

5. #GiveJoy Challenge

A friend and  Joy Let Loose reader recently shared a great resource with me that I’d like to pass along to you today. It is called the #GiveJoy Challenge 2017 from Amy Pike. I love it because it is designed for families. I think it will help parents and children alike to look beyond themselves this Christmas, and to look for ways to let joy loose this Christmas. That is something I can definitely get behind!!

Amy’s #GiveJoy challenge 2017 offers families 28 challenges, complete with instructions for each day. Obviously, you can pick and choose to go at your family’s pace. But there is something for every day of Advent if you are up for it. And you’ll find opportunities to share joy with friends & family, community members, and service professionals. Why not join Amy and spread a little  joy this Advent?

6. Life Skills

Practically speaking, the Advent Joy season is a preparation time for Christmas. And we all know we generally have a lot to do to get ready! One group I’ve chosen to come alongside here at  Joy Let Loose is Skill Trek. 

I love their taglines!  There is “Lifeproofing the next generation like nothing else”. And “Making ’em ready for anything”. Skill Trek has been designed for parents, to assist in learning important life skills that generally aren’t taught in schools. They have fun adventures for kids of all ages in everything from hygiene and cooking, to financial literacy and emergency preparedness. And they offer varying levels of digital curriculum for families of different budgets.

One thing I recently learned about from Skill Trek is The 12 Skills of Christmas, a seasonal curriculum they offer. Since Christmas prep is so busy, why not pull everyone into the festivities? We can help them learn to prepare holiday menus (including turkey!). Or organize a neighborhood cookie exchange, or create their own Advent calendar? It’s on sale right now, so it’s a great time to pick up this fun curriculum to help you organize and teach your kiddos this season.

I hope that this post inspires you to actively engage in the Advent season with your family. There are many ways, even beyond the regular holiday festivities. I’d love to hear from you in the comments below if you do try any of these ideas, or if you have some great family Advent traditions we should know about here at  Joy Let Loose!

Elizabeth Joy

 

 

 

 

Posted in: Community, Journey, Neighboring, Pay it Forward Ideas, Soul care, Uncategorized, Worship
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October 20, 2017

What if #MeToo Became #HealedToo? (Life after Domestic Abuse)

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October is Domestic Violence Awareness month, where many people are speaking up #MeToo. Some people “go purple” to bring awareness to the horrific silence inside of which many women, men and children suffer, where memories are dark and homes unsafe. One in three women, and one in four men have been the victims of some form of violence by someone close to them during their lifetime. Numerous among them were small children when the abuse began, and they remained in abusive situations for years.

This shocking reality is the sad cause of the #MeToo campaign we have seen on our social media feeds recently. My heart breaks for each person who bravely shares this hashtag, knowing thousands still remain silenced and scarred from abuse, at no fault of their own.

We aren’t made for silence.

I desperately want silence to turn to song. #MeToo >> #HealedToo Click To Tweet

 

Our Father made us for relationship with Him and with one another. We were created to share our lives openly, to vulnerably know and trust one another. We are supposed to learn God’s love for us inside relationships.  But for many who say #MeToo, trust has been stolen, and the possibility of vulnerable relationships has been robbed.

The enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy. But Jesus gives life to the full. (John 10:10)

#MeToo

My heart breaks for those whose social media sites bravely declare #MeToo, and yet they have not yet found true healing. Some of these are my friends, and yours.

Maybe one of them is you.

#HealedToo

Jesus Christ is the only one who offers true healing and abundant life. He is the Light of the World, and those who follow Him will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of LIFE. (John 8:12). He has come to set people free who are slaves to sin, or enslaved by the effects of sin. And those who Jesus sets free are free indeed. (John 8:36). 

#JoySighting

For today’s #JoySighting I want to introduce you to my friend, Christina. Largely through the help of Prevail Inc., she has found the LIFE that exists on the other side of domestic violence. And in that life, she has found  true joy. Christina displays true gratitude for What God has done in her. Her life overflows, and she lets her joy loose by sharing the realities of her story. When I first heard it, I wanted to help spread it. Because stories are powerful weapons against the darkness.

 

We overcome the enemy by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. (Revelation 12:11).

 

Even though Christina can say #MeToo, she can also declare that she has been healed, and she is alive in the abundant life of Christ. And in her story-telling, she is overcoming. She is saying #HealedToo.

What if everyone who says #MeToo could also say #HealedToo?

Do you know someone who needs to hear Christina’s story? Let’s see how far we can spread it! Please let her joy loose by sharing on your social media outlets.

Elizabeth Joy

Posted in: Joy sightings, Soul care
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