How to Find Your JOY in a Crazy, Upside-Down World

Introduction

If you will, please, think of the word JOY and observe your immediate response. What just happened? Did you bubble up into smiles? Or did you frown with thoughts of, “I wish; I don’t remember when”?

Okay, let’s do it again. This time, bring back a memory of a truly JOY-ful time. Stay focused upon it. Remember as many details as possible. Recall the people, places, colors, aromas, and season. Just stay in these images for a moment and just relax into the splendor of this recollection. Just breathe and melt into this pleasurable reflection.

Isn’t it amazing how quickly a happy flashback can cause a shift in the moment? A simple image may seem to be a distant experience, yet when recalled can fill the present with a dazzlingly good feeling that can lift your consciousness into new and exciting possibilities.

Yes, for sure, JOY can be quite powerful. In fact, JOY is power. JOY is a divine spark that spontaneously releases the heart of God from within our own hearts. It’s powerful, beautiful, and so often unpredictable.

REAL JOY has its own signature. It is not to be confused with happiness. Happiness, although good and highly regarded, is not the same as JOY. Happiness typically has a cause and effect. For example, happiness is felt when a goal, desire or dream is set forth and achieved – such as, “I will be happy when I start the new job” or “I’ll be happy when we move into the house” or “I will be happy when the divorce is final.”

In this regard, happiness has a function. Basically, it can fuel us to get from one station in life to another. Conversely, if the desired cause and effect is not achieved, for whatever reason, great unhappiness, perhaps even despair or a sense of powerlessness, can remain.

REAL JOY is different. It doesn’t have a beginning or an end. It doesn’t have a function in linear time. JOY’s purpose does the opposite. It lifts us out of the mundane and sparks us into feelings of awe that are beyond daily reasoning and time and space dimensions. Without explanation, JOY-ful experiences lift us into a moment of sheer heaven. Its power, having been felt deep into the soul, changes us forever.

Who can remain the same after gazing upon the face of their newborn baby for the very first time? Such an experience is JOY in perfection. Such an image remains in the heart and soul transcending all logic as it continuously serves to teach about the incomprehensible grace and wonder of God with every future reflection.

JOY is the presence of God bursting through us as our soul beams onto an experience that is purely divine, i.e., sunrises, sunsets, the genuine and unexpected embrace, connecting glances that speak without words in ways that stir and lighten the heart, quiet visitations in nature, watching as a loved one peacefully sleeps.

JOY teaches us God is here, in and around us, waiting to touch us with timeless heavenly love. JOY is the presence of God that is ever-present even though this reality seems unavailable under the veil of our highly distractible lifestyles.

Despite our whirlwind lives, JOY still remains as just the jolt we need to redirect our focus back into divine truth. JOY and divine truth can be described as the right and left arm of God eagerly ready to embrace us, at any moment, as a loving reminder that heaven is not so far away.

REAL JOY returns us to the soul – the peace of knowing, without words, that we are always safe and loved.

The purpose of this reading is to first explain how and why we lost our JOY (Part One: The Problem). Then we will learn how to regroup our steps (Part Two: The Solution) so we can once again be more equipped for staying open for JOY, REAL JOY, ready and able at any moment.

I pray this reading awakens your heart and heals your soul. I pray it reignites your JOY to live, love, and be loved in the simplest way, making every day quite extraordinary!

“The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.”

Psalm 126:3

Part One: The Problem

Chapter One: How Did We Get So Crazy?

As I was cleaning out a dresser drawer recently, I came upon an old photo of my parents. The photo was taken when they were seated at a dinner table with other family members. At this time, my parents had just become engaged and their mutual gazing into each other’s eyes spoke volumes without words. Their love-locked look spoke to me about their hopes, wishes, and dreams as I could feel their presence so alive in that old photo. The table was covered with delectable food ready for feasting. Candles, wine glasses, and squeezed-in seating were all brilliant signs of a happy celebration in the making.

I pondered over this picture that I might soak up its reminiscent healing and loving essence. Every face and gesture captured carried its own private story that my heart still holds and feels robustly. Truthfully, the scene could have been any Sunday, holiday or anytime someone “came over” for dinner. This was our routine and ritual.

As I further thought about those years, which is at least a half of a century ago, I allowed myself to drift more and more into the rhythm and ways of that time. My father worked, as did my grandfathers. Mothers and grandmothers were home then, managing, caring for all household tasks. We didn’t have a lot; we just had each other, our traditions, and rituals. Our recipe for life seemed almost predictable, although no one seemed to mind.

Even though this image may sound like a snapshot from “Pleasantville,” our lives were not without issues. My mother’s heart carried to her grave the pain of the death of her first child. My maternal grandfather lost everything in the Great Depression. My father lost a brother at an early age due to polio. My great-grandfather could drink too much, even though no one would ever talk about it. And my aunt’s “wise guy” husband had a “heavy hand” over her that we also never discussed.

Certainly, it wasn’t perfect. No life ever is. Yet we had great love and celebrations. My paternal grandfather, Papa Migo, loved the latest inventions and loved being the first on the block to have each new one as well. I remember clearly when Papa got the newest color TV. Wow! What a celebration that was! At least 20 of us gathered and crowded into the living room to watch, of course, Ed Sullivan. And yes, that did become a Sunday ritual.

Although those times were filled with both trials and triumphs, what I don’t remember is the agonizingly rapid pace of life that now is our accepted normal.

It seems our daily mantra has become a struggling internal murmuring that is saying, “it’s so hard to just keep up with everything.” Since the onset of television, the pace of technology and information obviously has progressed even beyond scientists’ and inventors’ wildest imaginings. We have moved from one television and a rotary phone in most homes to an iPhone, computer, social media, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Fitbit, and a must-have device called the Apple Watch. Whew! How did that happen and mostly in the last 20 years?

Over and over, moment to moment, we are now bombarded with information whether we like it or not. Some of the data deluge is useful and allows us to truly become a more global community. Unfortunately, some information is overkill marketing and advertising. Yet perhaps the most detrimental use of technology might be the constant displays of fear-based and violent eruptions in the daily news reports. Certainly some may argue that we need it to remain informed so that we can stay apprised of life’s events.