Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Joy Let Loose! With 2017 coming to a close, and Christmas celebrations still ringing in my ears, I celebrate what God has done this year.
Emmanuel has certainly been with us.
Just one year ago I felt purposeless, and confused in my new home. But I heard God whispering the word “Joy” to me for 2017. I imagined what that might look like. Of course, things don’t always turn out how we imagine they might, but as I review what has happened, God has still proven to be a Joy-Giver.
A New Start
I dreamt upJoy Let Loose in a season of grief. I wanted to find joy for myself, but I also wanted to spill it out for others to experience. If I had lost my joy, likely others had too. Could God use me to help them find it again?
So I took the plunge and started this blog. I’ve had my ups and downs as it has gotten off the ground. I’ve found some new communities that have helped me to learn, and to recover from disappointments, and I’ve been encouraged by many of your comments here and on my Facebook page. I have seen how much Pinterest impacts readership, and taken a course or two along the way as well. But as I review, there is still much to learn.
And even more, I keep needing to remember WHY.
Joy Let Looseis a thing because God’s JOY is real.
I blog because I want to live a life consistently strengthened by it.
I write because I believe I can impact your life, and encourage you in Joy.
A Year in Review
So as year one of Joy Let Loose winds down, I took a look in the rearview mirror. I’ve posted 44 times, and here were my TOP 10 posts this year:
Joy Let Loose Readers
Joy Let Loose readers come from all across the globe, from the USA to Uganda, Sri Lanka to New Zealand. How amazing to remember that people are seeking God’s joy from one end of the earth to the next. And I pray that the things I write can be a part of how God spreads it.
Can You Help?
So this morning I sent an email to my Joy Let Loose subscribers, asking for their input. How can I best encourage them in 2018? I’d like to ask the same of you, my blog readers. What has encouraged you on this blog in 2017? What topics have I missed?
Would you do me a favor and discuss in the comments below:
Where you are from
How you found Joy Let Loose
What has encouraged you here
and what you’d like to read about in 2018
I’d love to continue building the Joy Let Loose community, and hearing how God is impacting your lives with His joy in 2018. If you’d like to hear from me in your inbox on occasion, and receive 5 Prayer Prompts to restore your JOY over the next 5 days, please clickhere!
Merriest of Christmas & New Year celebrations to you and to your families.
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
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.
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 atJoy Let Loose!
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.
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 lifeto 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.
We all need some finding joy resources to help with our joy journey. So, while I’ve been working in worship ministry and writing for this blog, I’ve also been creating some others to go alongside. I want to provide practical steps to help us reclaim joy by renewing our minds and strengthening our spiritual lives.
Finding Joy Resources
Today I launched my second finding joy ebook, Replace Lies With Truth. This ebook was birthed from a blog post I shared several months ago. I have expanded it to highlight 7 prominent lies people believe about finding joy in the Lord. It applies Scriptural truth to the lies to help us walk in the reality of joy-filled life. “Replace Lies With Truth” also provides you with a place to keep track of your own progress as you identify and eliminate lies by trusting in God’s Word. So I’d love for you to grab it today for free!
Some of you have already downloaded my first ebook, Abiding Joy (30 Prayers from Joy Let Loose.) If you have, thank you! The idea for this ebook came when I realized one of my blog posts about prayer was gaining particular traction. Couple that with my experience as a worship leader, coaching many people to learn to pray publicly, and I realized how many believers feel inadequate in their prayer lives. So I designed these prayers to help readers learn to pray in a variety of ways.
I would love to hear your experiences with using these prayers in your daily life. So share in the comments below!
We live in a broken world where things seem to have a tendency to go wrong. The trajectory of the corrupted world seems to be toward sadness, brokenness, incompleteness. Because sin. And even when our lives seem to be going fairly well, we don’t have to look far to find hopelessness.
We have find reasons to rejoice.
The blessed narrative for many of us in the Western world is one that rises and falls, often in rapid succession. And the drops tend to yell with louder voices, commanding greater attention. Even as we try to fight the gravitational pull downward toward difficulty, we have reason to hope.
How do we live in this broken world, and find hope in our everyday lives while the world screams at us that there is none? When so many enormous trials face millions of people, how do we find reasons to rejoice as we face our everyday, mundane disappointments?
We have to look for reasons to REJOICE
So over the last few days, I have been looking….
Monday, October 2nd, 2017
6:00AM – I awoke, like most others, to the tragic news of a senseless act of violence in Las Vegas. I couldn’t even wrap my mind around it, and the disbelief swirled around in my mind as I prepared for the day, the numbers of deceased and wounded steadily climbing. I pray that the joy of the Lord strengthen those facing this tragedy. I have reason to rejoice because I know He is faithful.
7:00-8:00 – I embarked on the familiar morning ritual of repeatedly encouraging a fourteen-year-old girl with fourteen-year-old hormones and blood sugars running high to get ready for school. And I happen to be at the point in parenting my third where I am annoying 93.5% of the time. I remind myself, “Children are a gift from the LORD ; they are a reward from him.” (Ps 127:3) I have reason to rejoice because He has given me the opportunity to shape her life.
8:20AM – I chose tosingmy hope as I drove to work. I dropped my daughter at school (miraculously on time), then prayed and sang, and asked God to move in Las Vegas, to move in my daughter, and to move in me.
And then my suburban was hit by a semi…
And I realized I was okay.
8:39AM – And, as though the Lord Himself were holding me, I was able to move out of traffic, and remain calm while assessing the damage. I had no pain, I didn’t think I was in shock, and I didn’t even feel anger toward the other driver.
I just sat there & looked for hope.
There had to be reasons to rejoice even in this moment.
My son had decided not to come with me that morning, so he was not in the passenger seat, where the majority of the impact was.
I was literally one minute from my work.
We were in a roundabout, so our speed had been reduced.
My husband was almost immediately accessible to drop everything and come.
One of my Pastors (and friends) was on the scene within minutes.
My 13-years-faithful suburban had remained so today.
No one was hurt, and I was not at fault for this collision.
There were so many reasons to rejoice in these unexpected moments.
10:30 – But after the police report, the tow truck and the rental car, a phone call came from the police officer. He was full of apologies as he revealed I was at fault, according to a new law neither he, nor I, (nor any of the insurance agents I talked to through the day), had known about.
And I felt myself slipping toward disbelief and almost anger. How quickly I felt my trajectory change! I could not (still cannot!) wrap my mind around this law that allows semi drivers to ignore posted traffic patterns and forces other drivers to go against conventional wisdom.But even in my frustration, I can rejoice.
It just may be a little more difficult
11:30AM – So after attending to obligatory accident details for the rest of the morning, I finally arrived at work, my intended destination. There I met my caring co-workers who were concerned for me, and encouraging to my heart. They helped me continue to look for reasons to rejoice, as I joined our meeting (already in progress) and we celebrated what God had done over the weekend.
2:30 PM – And when we were finally tired of sitting and working through some difficult items, we went out for fresh air. My team looked for reasons to rejoice together.
And we found them:
We welcomed the staff of a new bank to the neighborhood,
We laughed as some of us raced down the sidewalk
Also, we successfully avoided the doughnut shop (it helped that it was closed…)
And we stopped at a playground to swing as high as we possibly could.
The sun, fresh air, and blood pumping through my veins lifted me out of the pit of irritation that wanted to swallow me whole. I just had to choose to be lifted up.
After intentionally looking for reasons to rejoice that afternoon, it was much easier to return to the tasks of the day. Minute by minute, that one day threw several curveballs that distracted and tempted me to lose sight of hope. But, curveballs or not, it is 100% my choice to rejoice.
And we all have that choice every minute of every day. So, how can face this world, with all its bad news and disappointments, and find reasons to rejoice? Is it true that we can bless the Lord at all times? (Ps 34:1a).
Bless the Lord at all Times
I believe that in all circumstances, there are three things that can quickly re-focus us to bring hope:
God hears me.
When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. (Psalm 34:17)
God turns his ears to his children. He hears the prayer of the son or daughter who calls out to Him. No matter our situation, God is El Roi, the God who sees us.
God holds me.
For I am the LORD your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you. (Isaiah 41:13)
God is like a tender shepherd who gathers his lambs in His arms. He pulls us close to protect us under the shadow of His wing. He will not let go.
God calls me to Himself.
Jesus said, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him to life on the last day.” (John 6:44)
God has made a way in Jesus to bring us to Himself. And as we draw near to Him, He continues to draw near to us. Because He has welcomed us as sons and daughters into His own family.
When all around you the world seems to be falling apart, remember that you have reasons to rejoice.
