Joy in the Fullest Form

Today was what most people would call ordinary, but as I look back on it there is one thing that stands out- joy- even living in an in-between time- there is joy. I was able to see the joy of my mom as I accompanied her on her Meals on Wheels route. There was joy as we walked and ate lunch together. There was joy in our frustration of how we saw someone being treated. There was joy as we talked to my niece or rather the ceiling via Skype. There was joy in our game of sequence and our cup of tea. There was joy as I took my time preparing resumes.  Joy was abounding in the moments of our lives.

Currently, I am reading "One Thousand Gifts: a word to live... and to die by", by Ann Voskamp during my quiet times with the Lord. Although our lives are vastly different, I find myself thinking, what good friends we might be. The beginning of the book paints a picture of monotony, failure, and all other forms of negativity, but then we delve deeper into a question we all struggle with: How do we fully live as we are fully prepared to die?

Several things struck me as I grazed over the pages of Chapter Two:

"...----- who is born again, but still so much in need of being born anew----give me the details of how to live in the waiting cocoon before forever begins?"

" The holy grail of joy is not in some exotic location or some emotional mountain peak experience. The joy wonder could be here! Here, in the messy, piercing ache of now, joy might be--- unbelievably possible! the only place we need see before we die is this place of seeing God, here and now."

I mean, WOW! Who among us has lost touch with joy that was with us at the acceptance of Christ? Who just longs to be renewed in that joy?  If any of you know my story of coming to know Christ, you know that the acceptance came long before the understanding and still longer before knowing the joy of Christ.

So what if the joy is here and now? How do we see it and experience this joy? How do we reunite with it? This journey I am on will surely bring me bits of frustration, anger, and bitterness, but yet still...

You know that old saying that "there's joy in the journey", well I aim to find it. So many of us wait expectantly for joy to come into our lives as if it is something that can only be temporary. I don't believe that's true- even in the midst of mistakes and uncertainty- there is joy. There is joy because Christ is our Joy and He is always with us.