I felt that choosing to do things that brought me joy was frivolous. Also selfish.
I believed that real value was found in hard work, so there wasn’t really room for play time. I didn’t know how important it was to build joy. How sad!
Find the Lie
I’m going to go ahead and be super honest with you here that I STILL wrestle with this lie from time to time. That joyful things need to be held off until after the hard stuff is done. Like I need to earn joy.
I. KNOW. The one who’s always talking about letting joy loose is on the joy struggle bus sometimes.
It’s almost like something wants to hold me back from living out my purpose…Go figure.
Replace it with Truth
Let me tell you what I tell myself when the struggle rises up:
Elizabeth, Jesus came so that your joy would be complete (John 15:11).
Today is a day that God made for you, so go ahead and rejoice and be glad in it (Psalm 118:24) because He is your glory and your joy. (1 Thess. 2:20)
And may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope (Rom 15:13).
Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say, rejoice. (Phil 4:4)
Why are you so downcast, O my Soul?
Another way to get in the habit of joy-building is to regularly journal your gratitude. Grateful souls tend to be joyful souls. Developing a rhythm of gratitude each morning sets us up to see our moments through the day with a better perspective, in in general to grow in increasing joy.
There is something so uplifting about speaking Scripture over your own downcast soul. Joy is such a good medicine (Proverbs 17:22) The Bible is alive and active and has the power to uplift even the saddest or most weary hearts. And when these words of truth and gratitude breathe joy back into my bones, it frees me up to step more fully into the life-giving things around me that fuel my enjoyment and express my God-wired purpose even more.
Do more things that bring you joy!
Next time you are discouraged, or overwhelmed by the hard, why don’t you give one of those methods a try too? Jesus desires for us to be full of His joy, and to do more things that bring us joy!
Tell me in the comments: What do you to increase your joy??
I had a special moment yesterday when I caught a glimpse into the past. This letter was written on my birthday, but thirty-one years prior to my birth. And it was written just six days after my mother was born, by her father, stationed away from his family during WWII.
December 8, 1943
“My Dearest”
How precious to read his handwriting to his “dearest” about his happiness to receive the telegram about the birth of their second baby girl. While he gave some news of the goings-on about him, he more mused about how his family was doing. He so wanted her to be well and happily settled back at home. He must have been so anxious to hold his new daughter!
I can’t imagine being apart at birth and yet I know it happens regularly, families separated by wars, external or internal.
I am so grateful for the examples all of my grandparents, parents, and in-laws have set by demonstrating steadfastness and faithfulness in their marriages, even when external forces made that so hard. We will strive to do the same.
I can imagine my sweet “Poppy”, young and in uniform, pouring out his love on paper. and imagining his wife and new baby so far away and still in hospital. I picture his heart welling up to be with them. He let his JOY loose!
“Your Loving Husband”
My grandfather signed his letter “your loving husband”, and he remained most definitely so for the duration of his long life. I’m so thankful I got to have this glimpse into his heart this week. What a treasure for my mom to still have his letter, and to know how happy he was about her arrival all those years ago!
Have you enjoyed any glimpse into the past that have touched your heart and caused you to be grateful? Tell me about it in the comments!
Today I had the privilege of getting together with my friend, Pastor John Gorveatte from The Center Church in Grand Rapids, to talk about developing the holy habit of celebration–practicing JOY. I loved chatting with him live and hearing the questions come in from people who joined us over their lunch breaks.
Practicing JOY
If you’ve followed me at all here at Joy Let Loose you know that I talk a lot of practicing JOY. But I loved the perspective that Pastor John brought with his questions, and the opportunity to consider how this particular season of quarantine can impact this holy habit. I also realize how timely it is for us to slow down and allow our perspectives to be opened to the idea of practicing JOY.
I hope you enjoy and share something you take away from it in the comments below!
In hindsight, I can see that I had lived a long time afraid of joy. Vulnerability births joy, but joy itself isalso very vulnerable. Because what if someone snatches it away? What if it doesn’t last? What if I give in to joy and then realize it it gone or it was never real?
“Just that maybe … maybe you don’t want to change the story, because you don’t know what a different ending holds.”
What a lie from the enemy to steal, kill, destroy our joy!
Celebration points to the Joy Giver. It calls out realities of God as Provider, Sufficient, GOOD. So why wouldn’t the enemy of our souls want to make us fear it and quench it?
NO!
LET. IT. LOOSE!!
How are you practicing joy?
How are you practicing joy during this season? Where do you need to grow in this holy habit? How can I encourage you in those things?
I pray that you would let JOY be your continual feast. Make your life a prayer. And in the midst of everything, be always giving thanks for this is God’s perfect plan for you in Christ Jesus. (1 Thess. 5:16-18 TPT)
Many of us feel as though our heads are spinning and we are completely out of control. We couldn’t predict that we’d be desperate to persist with JOY in 2020. When the calendar turned for me into this new decade, I discovered that my words for this year were going to be imagine and persist. But I didn’t know how challenging those would prove to be so quickly.
Then…
Just one month ago I boarded my second cruise ship for the month, helping my husband with his job. These fan cruises for NFL team fans were the culmination of sooo much prayer and hard work. Our whole family was there, and we were so excited to be volunteering together on a worthwhile adventure where we were seeing people be introduced to Jesus on the high seas.
Now…
Fast forward one month: there is a global pandemic, basically everything is shut down, my husband has lost the job he loved so much and was so effective in, and we can’t even leave our house while we are seeking wisdom from the Lord what to do next. And as ministers for Jesus, we are preparing for the inevitable onslaught of pastoral care on the near horizon, while helping people begin to navigate their current reality of isolation.
Wow! How did that happen? And how do we figure out how to persist with JOYeven now?
I am so grateful that joyfulness is dependent on the constancy of a Person, not the comfort of a circumstance. I’ve learned this to be true – Hallelujah! But the reality is that we each need to put one foot in front of the other each day to persist with joy, right? We need to make tangible action towards joyful living. Here are 5 simple things we can do even now.
What Can We do to Persist With Joy?
Practice Gratitude. This is something I talk about a lot. But sometimes it’s easier than others, isn’t it? Maybe you can start here at Joy Let Loose…put something in the comments that you are grateful for today!
Stay connected. The kind of season we find ourselves in right now can cause us to self-protect and isolate. But isolation is a joy-killer, and community brings life. Maybe right now isn’t the time for get togethers and parties, but we live in such an opportune time to be creative with our connections as we persist with joy.
Steal away for quiet time. It’s important to nourish our faith and quiet our souls. We were made to sometimes be still and know the God is GOD. Want some help knowing what to do in that quiet time? Start here:
Remember your wellness is holistic. Those who know me know I believe we are beautifully and intricately made, and that our mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual wellness are all intertwined, and impact each other. Gut health impacts mental wellness, spiritual wellness impacts sleep, emotional health impacts digestion, skin, and energy etc. We are wonderfully complex beings! One of the ways that I persist with joy even now is to take that seriously, and to focus on my wellness holistically.
Learn something new. What better time than when we are sheltering in place to learn a new skill? Or start a new hobby? Or discover some way to grow and improve ourselves? Whether that’s a new recipe, an online art or music lesson, or a leadership development podcast, now is the perfect time to re-focus and grow. Let’s be creative and try something different so we become more of who we are made to be (instead of wasting away the day with a couch and Netflix.) I’m working on developing my leaders team with my Young Living business..and the Zoom calls, Marco chats, and business development activities are filling me up! (I’m also trying my hand at a few new recipes as I persist with joy…I don’t love to cook, but I need to eat!) Share in the comments below something new you are going to try in April!
So Persist With Joy
So be truly glad. There is wonderful JOY ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world. (1 Peter 1:6-7)
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
As I’m writing, it is Sunday, so that means tomorrow is Monday, which means it’s a good idea to know 5 must-haves for a joyful day. Because Mondays.
To be honest, I’ve never been an overly strategic person, but as I’ve been learning to juggle three part-time jobs plus a family, and desiring to grow one business wider and deeper, it’s essential I learn to strategize. That can flesh itself out to include my thoughts, my calendar, and my choices. And even how I will enter each and every morning.
Thankfully I know this is true:
The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. (Lamentations 3:22-23)
Because every morning is a brand new opportunity to seek out the Lord’s mercies. L.M. Montgomery said it best this way through a fiery redhead:
Tomorrow is always fresh with no mistakes in it.
Anne Shirley
5 Must-Haves for a Joyful Day
So here are 5 Must-Haves for a Joyful Day, which you can take with you into each of your tomorrows.
Gratitude
I’ve shared numeroustimes about gratitude, and sometimes have included one of my favorite quotes:
Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It takes what we have and makes it enough and more.
Melody Beattie
In my experience, gratitude is active. It involves intentionally speaking, writing, sharing, showing, and extending thanks to people around you. Voiced into the air, a song of gratitude carries our heart and mind forward on its melody and has power to lift our head above discouragement. And being thankful on purpose is E-S-S-E-N-T-I-A-L to a joyful day, and I can basically guarantee your gratitude will help someone else have a joyful day too.
Goals
Long-term dreams can be broken into short-term pieces that move us toward what is to come. Because big dreams don’t just happen when moons line up nicely. They happen from hard work, moving along an intentional trajectory toward a desired result.
And just like our teachers taught us in school, large papers are written more productively and easily when based on an outline. Because a good outline is not haphazard – it is an intentional framework upon which an entire essay will hang. It is where the most essential work lies, because if the framework is weak or off-kilter, so too will the paper be.
At the top of the year, outline the major dreams (perhaps 2 for family, 2 for work, 2 for professional development… be creative, and dare to dream!)
Next, brainstorm: What are the big steps that lead to those dreams? Divide up the calendar into 2-3 big steps forward per month, per dream.
Then, examine how each week will move toward each of the monthly steps.
Finally, divide up the week into manageable, strategic bite-sized pieces to help lead in the right direction. Each day can be a joyful day.
Perspective
There is a comedian and art critic who hinges everything on this. He says:
I like to turn things upside down, to watch pictures and situations from another perspective.
Ursus Wehrli
Have you done that today? Have you tried to consider a circumstance from another person’t point of view? Or have you examined a micro situation from a macro perspective? Zoom out. Could you take something in from a different angle? Step to the side.
For me, letting JOY loose has partly been a journey in perspective. God called me to Joy Let Loose when I was decidedly joy-less. And He has walked with me through some messy parts of finding joy again by calling me to vulnerability in community, and acknowledgement of #reallife stuff. Sometimes it feels just like this:
Pic from Nadine Shaabana via Unsplash
God gifts us with a glimpse that actual Kingdom reality doesn’t look quite like what we see in the moment. He uses people to help us ask important questions that narrow things in or turn them around or magnify what matters. It’s often all about perspective, and in the change, we find a joyful day. So be open to a shift!
Perspective is everything when you are experiencing the challenges of life.
Joni Eareckson Tada
Flexibility
A fresh perspective begs for flexibility. We will be far less drained and far more joyful when we can roll with things somewhat. Not that organization, planning, or strategy need to be thrown out the window.
Remember the essay outline I mentioned? Outlines and plans and strategies are important. But sometimes the clothing that ultimately dresses the outline can shift, or be accessorized differently. Sometimes throwing an orange scarf in the mix that you happened to find in the bin at Goodwill is just the thing to tie the whole designer outfit together. Get where I’m going with this analogy?
I used to teach piano lessons. Scales, chords, sight-reading, classical music, gospel songs, jazz…all the things that I think are important for budding musicians to learn. But one key component I often included that many other teachers didn’t were moments for creative music making. I wanted to inspire the songwriters within.
And the best thing I think I infused into these little artists was an appreciation for flexibility. A “mistake” in songwriting is just an opportunity to try going a different direction than you intended. It’s an invitation for beauty you didn’t anticipate.
Be flexible. Find beauty in changing direction today. A joyful day just might live there.
Laughter
A joyful day absolutely MUST hold laughter. I mean, they basically have to go hand-in-hand, I think. Even the hardest days can hold joy, after all. Even grieving days can have levity, and the most stressful days can find a chuckle somewhere. It’s important for our overall wellness.
I doubt I have to champion the benefits of laughter for you. But I may have to provide a reminder for you to seek it out if you want to have a joyful day. Check out that linked article for some great ideas for being strategic about laughter, mm-k?
And I’ll just say this: laughter is generally best when experienced with others. So in my encouragement for you to laugh everyday, I’m really saying this: get around other joyful people everyday. Joy begets joy. Laughter inspires laughter. If you don’t got it…go get it!
No day is complete without a belly laugh, amirite?
Go Get That Joyful Day!
Gratitude + Goals + Perspective + Flexibility + Laughter = the perfect storm for a joyful day. Let’s be strategic about letting JOY loose.
Tell us in the comments below what you plan to do to find your joyful day!
