Joy Let Loose

August 13, 2020

How to step into life purpose

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How to step into life purpose

Almost a month ago I asked the question “So now what?” as I wrote about my business helping me flesh out my life call. At that time I was keenly aware that my Young Living journey is a gift that God has given me to help me let JOY loose in people’s lives. I see it in myself, my customers, my running mates and my builders. Such an unexpected gift! (If you haven’t read about that journey, I’d encourage you to click here before reading on. Or if you’ve been looking for an entrepreneurial vehicle in the realm of wellness, with crazy good personal development and an amazing community to help you pursue your life purpose, I’d encourage you to click here so we can connect directly!)

Even in the last few weeks since I wrote that post I’ve been discovering more about how to step into my purpose. And I’ve become more mindful that a lot of people I know can’t actually articulate their life purpose, and don’t know how to move into it with their families, vocations, or future plans.

What is your life purpose?

On a scale from 1 (I have no idea) to 5 (I know it and I’m pursuing it!), where do you stand in relation to articulating your life call or life purpose?

Rating: 1 out of 5.
Step into life purpose

Persist and Imagine

For the last few years, I’ve started the year by establishing words I felt drawn to for that calendar year. These words would be a lens of sorts that I would choose to view life through. In 2017 AND 2018, that word was JOY. In 2017 I was fighting for it, in 2018 I started finding it. And then in 2019 my word became HAPPY.

When the calendar turned to 2020, I had a massive shift and couldn’t get away from two words for this year: Persist and Imagine. I didn’t know necessarily what those might mean, but they were as clearly dropped into my heart and mind as an Amazon package left on my doorstep. They even rang the doorbell.

Well, how to persist became evident fairly quickly, both as a pandemic took over the globe, and as my parents’ health rapidly declined and I was unable to be with them to help. Not only that, but as our family joined millions of others with a main source of income suddenly lost, persisting became normal quickly:

  • Praying for my family and others
  • Intentionally keeping relationships alive
  • Staying focused on helping a church ministry shift
  • Choosing to rejoice when negativity was so rampant
  • Choosing to establish and maintain healthy habits in quarantine
  • Diligently working on my business to try to make up some financial discrepancies we faced.
  • Prayerfully entertaining opportunities, conversations, and suggestions about what we are to do next.

For us, like many of you, this season has been marked by persistence.

So how about imagining?

Sometimes it is easy to get lost in a head-down, push-through rhythm. Persisting holds less dreaming and more “get it done.” I definitely felt like that by early May. It was draining, and sucking the life out of me. I realized I needed to create space to lift my head and be more of a hummingbird than a hamster. I was going to need to listen, not speak. Nourishment and renewal became a craving.

And that is when the dream started to open up. Imagine had told me that dreaming was on the horizon in 2020. But when the year slammed in like a monsoon instead of a gentle tide, I couldn’t even imagine imagining!

But as I purposefully unplugged, and spent time listening, resting, and quieting my soul, my imagination began to come alive. It was slow. Kind of vague. But nevertheless, the horizon vision started to materialize a little bit. Somehow, persisting had led me by the hand toward imagining. Kind of like God had gone before me to prepare me or something.

My life purpose

I’m currently sitting in the summer breeze, halfway through a 14-day quarantine restriction imposed on us because we crossed a national border. And in this short season of isolation, the dream is becoming clearer. All of a sudden, any limit on dreaming is lifted, and it is like God has spoken that it is time for me to begin to step into purpose. It seems I hear Him best when I’m still.

Surrender your anxiety! Be silent and stop your striving and you will see that I am God. I am the God above all the nations, and I will be exalted throughout the whole earth.

Psalm 46:10 TPT

It thrills me, consumes me, and scares me a little now that He’s removed any lid from my imagining. But while He is allowing me to begin to do some tangible research and brainstorming, He has also been crystallizing for me my history, showing me all the many ways He has been preparing me for this dream. And WOW – things that seemed unrelated to me before are synthesizing into the beautiful training ground for what He is calling me to. (They always had been, I just didn’t realize it.)

Start with acknowledging that deeper longing within you. If I had to take a guess, that’s why you’re here. You can feel it. I don’t even have to define what it is–you know exactly what I’m talking about. It is that “something more to life” rumbling around in your gut, that tug drawing you toward a scary, audacious dream.

Bob Goff, Dream Big

So what about you?

What would I hope you would take away from this small and evolving part of my story? Well, there are a few things:

  • Consider asking the Lord for an annual guiding word – it’s not too late to redeem 2020!
  • If you’ve been head-down, consider editing your lifestyle to create space to lift your head.
  • Allow for silence. Listen.
  • Look back and look around. What has God done in you? What has He been training you for?
  • Look inward: what do you LOVE? What are you absolutely passionate about? What are you awesome at? Those will in some way reflect life purpose.
  • Ask a trusted friend for an honest assessment whether they believe you are inhibited by limiting beliefs or self-talk.
  • Stay patient. Purpose unfolds.
  • Read this book:

  • And finally: When God asks you to take a step, don’t be afraid of it. If He suddenly lifts a lid, trust in His goodness and move forward into it.

Don’t be afraid

God is trustworthy. He created you with purpose for a purpose. He wants you to dream and follow hard after Him into things that will bring you joy and fulfillment, and things that will glorify Himself to others. This is life purpose.

So how are you going to begin to step into your life purpose? Tell us your next step in the comments below!

Elizabeth Joy

Posted in: Journey, Purpose
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March 31, 2020

How To Persist With JOY Even Now

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The world is changing quickly.

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 JOY even 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:
April-2020-Bible-planDownload

Remember…

  • 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.

Romans 15:13

Elizabeth Joy

Posted in: Journey, Wellness
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January 16, 2020

My Guiding Word(s) for 2020 and my Journey to Get Here

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2017 Guiding Word

Three years ago I identified a word for the year: JOY. I felt called to it & desperate for it. I became laser-focused on walking in the JOY of the Lord. It was a macro purpose, fueling the launch of this blog & intentional ministry; yet it shaped micro purpose for me in everyday moments too in a year where I would face great sadness & trauma. I didn’t know how much a guiding word would help me.

2018 Guiding Word

When the page turned to 2018 I didn’t feel released from this word, so JOY remained my word for another full year. I didn’t know then how much effort I would need to use to stay focused on JOY as we walked through major grief in things our children were dealing with. The pursuit of JOY-steadiness seemed to keep my heart beating at times. My guiding word was pointing me toward my Source.

2019 Guiding Word

When we rang in the year of 2019, I was starting to breathe a little more clearly. And I felt compelled to choose a new guiding word – HAPPY. I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you I was scared of it. What if I picked it as a guiding word and then failed to be happy? What if the heavy parts of the journey we were on sucked every last ounce of happiness out of me? Nevertheless, I held it up like a banner and walked forward and placed faith again in the hands of the ONE who had steadied me with His JOY, believing He would help me learn to “feel” HAPPY again.

HE DOES NOT FAIL. Despite tensions, I knew happiness. Despite melancholy moments, I still experienced more belly laughs & the stiff jaw of a long smile. I lingered with family and enjoyed friendships that were good for my soul. I sang more, moved more, and breathed more deeply.

Rounding the bend of 2019 I wondered what guiding word was next. All through the holidays I mused on what word would guide me deeper into God’s heart and my own purpose in 2020. It feels like a year of 20/20 vision for me. But I kept going back and forth between two words that felt like they’d been tattooed on my heart. Why were they both so strong, and how would I pick?

2020 Guiding Word(s)

This week it finally seems clear I have 2 guiding words and both are important. IMAGINE – I believe God is calling me to dream this year. PERSIST – I believe He is calling me to strategically move toward the fulfillment of a dream. HE DOES NOT FAIL. So I’m starting to dream.

How about you?

Have you chosen a guiding word for 2020? I’d be blessed to celebrate it with you!

Elizabeth Joy

Posted in: Journey
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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October 26, 2018

Leading Worship With Joy (Instead of Giving Up in Defeat)

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How can you ensure you are leading worship with joy (instead of giving up with defeat?)

Ok now. Some of you read that question and are just about to click away. Even if you don’t have a musical bone in your body, this post is for you too. Please stay. 🙂

Some of you would know that my main ministry role is as a worship pastor. I have held numerous roles within this realm, from volunteer, to paid staff, to a professor of worship. All of these roles have stretched me and taught me much about Christian worship. None has really stretched me as much as my current role. And it’s not the role itself, or the church (which I love!). Rather, it was the reality that I was ultimately the one responsible to encourage our congregation to come  joyfully and fully to the Lord in worship, while in the middle of my own season of difficulty over the last eight months or so.

Rewind…

I’ve been through other troublesome seasons before as a worship leader. Like immediately after one of my husband’s best friends hit a moose with his car, dying instantly, and we had to lead worship at his funeral. Or that time five years ago when I had just spent several nights in the hospital learning to navigate a new Type 1 Diabetes reality with our 10-year-old daughter, only to wake up early the next morning (groggy) to an email announcing my fill-in worship leader for that morning’s chapel service had backed out. I remember being angry, yet not wanting to thrust anyone else into a last minute situation, and just crying in the shower. I was so mad at God for all my little girl was going through, exhausted from sleeping on an uncomfortable hospital cot, and overwhelmed by what was now only a 4-day reality for us that literally changed our lives.

But somehow, I was going to need to get up in front of our entire Bible College population and start leading  worship with joy in less than two hours. 

God met me right there in my frustration. He can always handle my anger at Him. And as I cried in the shower, He filled my mind with Truth. Scriptures came back to me. Songs welled up. And before I was even ready to drive to the chapel, I was excited to lead our people to worship. Because I realized again that He had never left us. I remembered His goodness. And I wanted to share that with other people so they could remember too. That morning stands out in my memory as one of the most powerful mornings of worship I have ever experienced in the hundreds, or maybe even thousands, of times I’ve led.

 

Leading Worship With Joy

(Instead of Giving Up in Defeat)

Who is a worship leader? What does a worship leader do? Most people would answer that question with descriptions including singing, playing an instrument, or leading from a platform into a microphone. And yes, in our church contexts, the vocational worship leader tends to do those things. But I would suggest there is more. There are more people called to lead worship than those of us who are skilled musically.

In fact, I would suggest that  all Christians are called to be worship leaders. Because to lead worship with joy is to point the way for other people to worship Jesus. You don’t have to be musical to do that, now, do you? In fact, here are some of the ways Christians can lead other people to worship God:

  • share your story of meeting Jesus
  • send an encouraging text that reminds someone of God’s love
  • tell someone about God’s provision when you were in need
  • add chairs to your table and invite people into your home
  • create graphics that highlight truths about God and share them through social media
  • change the conversation to one that is uplifting when it wants to drift to negativity
  • visit someone who is experiencing difficulty and help them, reminding them of God’s presence
  • invite someone to join you in a reading plan
  • openly replacing lies with truth as you discover them
  • write out 10 reasons you are grateful and post it as your Facebook status
  • listen carefully when people talk to you, and tell them where you see God moving in their story

This is only scratching the surface. But I hope you can see that none of these scenarios involve music, yet all point other people to God. This is  worship leading.

So What?

So what’s the big deal? Why am I even writing this post?

Well, because when life is tough, it’s really hard to do any of these things. It’s much easier to simply give up in defeat. It’s very tempting to a) share all the negatives, forgetting anything positive, or b) withdraw from people completely. But worship leading requires other people to be led. And it forces us to see through the negatives to realize the positives are still there, even if they seem to be in some other dimension.

And here’s the other reason. Every Christian is called to spur others on. All of us have the opportunity to be part of someone else’s spiritual formation story. How we choose to lead worship in our own lives will leave a legacy in someone else’s life. I want to leave a legacy of  joy. I want to impact the lives of others by pressing in with faith through the difficulties and the desolate seasons in my own. Faith shows the reality of what we are hoping for even when we can’t see them yet. And I lead worship with joy when I trust and pursue what I believe to be true, and I let others know about it.

Leading worship with joy is incredibly vulnerable. It’s risky. But great faith takes risks on believing God. Because He will never disappoint.

Great faith takes risks on believing God. Because He will never disappoint. Share on X

This is real life…

I have several Christian friends facing very difficult things: broken marriages, family members in drug rehab, financial distress, foster children in precarious circumstances, health uncertainties. Each one of them can be tempted to despair at every turn. But instead, each of them is called to  lead worship with joy.

 In hospitals and police stations, on the phone and online, in private moments and very public ones, they each have the choice to lead worship with joy. Not to ignore their circumstances, but to lead through them. They have the opportunity to help other people be formed spiritually by how they choose to point to Christ in the everyday-ness of their lives. And the reality is, as they choose to praise God at all times, their own joy will be restored. Their eyes will open to God moving in their own circumstances, they will be strengthened to persevere, and they will radiate faith.

Our worship is our fight song. It is our weapon to defeat the enemy. It is how we engage in lifting our own heads to face the realities of our day head-on. Leading worship with joy is how we win against defeat.

So what about you?

How is God calling you to lead worship with  joy? What tangible steps can you take today to point the way to Christ? What will it require of you? And how do you think you will grow through it?

I love it when people visit  Joy Let Loose to read and then engage with me in the comments. Would you be willing to share a story of how you lead worship with joy in your life? And would you also be willing to share this post with people in your circles who could also learn to lead worship with joy? Let’s let joy loose together!

Elizabeth Joy

Posted in: Journey, Worship
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