Joy

Looking back over the past few posts, I have realized they are quite heavy. I tend to be a bit dark by nature, so that is not strange for me. I can accept that about myself, but I also recognize that where some people may be in need of some gravity, I must consciously find levity.

I have been told that my personality in writing is vastly different than my attitude in person. This is not strange among writers either. Writing is a way to tap into and express things that can't be expressed well in other means. I am actually more suspicious of 'posery' (to coin a term) when someone is one way through and through. We are full of so many attitudes and emotions, to be totally dominated by one thing does not seem natural.

So, this post is an attempt to think gravely about light things...there's a Navajo concept!

There are many kinds of simple graces, or blessings in life. Sometimes we are so caught up in them that we do not realize them. We can all think of those Hallmark moments and they have their place...but I won't delve into that sap. Rather, have you ever felt an inexplicable joy rise up inside you? Sometimes it is triggered by an event, but not the ordinary happiness from circumstance. I mean the real, crazy, deep bubbling over type of joy that can't be contained! It is simple in that there are no parts or angles. It is simply joy. This is what our poor worship leaders strive for in their various styles every Sunday, but very often have to fake because it just can't be achieved on cue.

Of course there is the very mystical kind of joy that comes at seemingly random moments. But there is also a joy very nearly like it that comes when we are operating in our place...filling that spot for which we were made. This doesn't have to do with a vocation necessarily, but can come with an activity. This joy feels like God smiling and cheering on us to go and do, like He is there doing it with us and we are experiencing the full exhilaration of God in that moment.

The truth is, He is there with us and we are feeling His exhilaration. Our infinite God has made us all to express a unique portion of Himself. In that way He loves us all uniquely and completely. When we do what it is that we are made for, we can't help but be caught up in that cosmic elation for the thing.

I know that I feel this kind of joy in several places. One is wilderness. When out beyond human things and hanging on my wits and God's grace...at times literally...I feel alive and full, and God is palpably present with me. When swimming, I also feel this. As the water slides by and wraps around me gliding through my skin and hair, I am at one with the water and God is closer to me than the liquid that surrounds me. And when dancing to the raucous joyful music that I love so much, not in a polite behaved way, but in the full-out violent way of King David himself, I am also whole.

Sadly, knowing these instances so well, I find every obstacle in this world climbing up between me and them. Gee, I wonder why that is? It's almost like someone doesn't want me to experience them...hmmm.

What's your joy? Do you do it often? Don't lose it.