Another dull gray day, another day of self-isolation, and it’s getting harder to keep the spirits up. Whatever happened to joy? Jesus wants our joy to be full (see John 15:11). And it’s one of the fruits of the Spirit. Joy should be the hallmark of a Christian: a kind of identifying aura that others […]
IT’S YOUR CHOICE TO REJOICE
My mom had a no-fail way of dealing with grumpy, complaining, mopey kids: she’d send us to our rooms with one command: “come out when you’re ready to be happy!” Typically I would stomp off full of whatever grievance I was nursing, only to come out soon after, having laid it aside. Not that the […]
I CHOOSE JOY!
I almost didn’t buy it. Half-buried in a tangle of costume jewelry, the pin sat in a dish by the cash register. “Your pick, $5” said the sign. “Junk,” I muttered — then looked again. Three rhinestone capitals winked a message: JOY! Best $5 jewelry purchase ever. I wear it every year—on my sweatshirts and […]
SEVEN REASONS TO REJOICE WHEN THINGS GO WRONG
I LIKE MY JOY STRAIGHT UP, or maybe neat: pure, with no rocks at all. But is that what joy is all about? Webster’s calls joy “the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires.” So when all’s right with the world: Ah, joy…. Then why […]
REJOICE WITH ME!
“This is the day that the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it!” Reading that psalm starts the music going in my head. I hear my mother singing it in the kitchen … my Dad starting up the chorus in the car … my brothers and I joining in. It has […]
WISDOM FROM JAMES: Intro & “Count it All Joy” (1:2)
Sometimes I feel like Little Red Riding Hood. I’m traveling toward the Father’s house along a winding road, running from wolves in the bushes. I can’t always see well, and I stumble. Accidents happen. I pass people on other roads who look like they’re having a much better time than I am, and who […]
