By Well if your year has been even remotely close to mine, thinking about having joy may seem like an impossibility. With COVID restrictions the things that typically bring joy this time of year are on hold. We are social distancing, wearing masks, events are cancelled. This season is typically when families gather together. Where we have work parties and events, church events and plays and gatherings. This is a season where even the quietest of communities come alive.
Yet, in the midst of all our circumstances we have the option to choose JOY. We have the option to focus on the negatives or we can choose to focus on what we have. We can choose to find joy in the small places. We can choose to have joy.
When the angel arrived on the scene to tell the shepherds about what had just happened they said, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.” (Luke 2:10-12 NKJV) After telling the shepherds to not be afraid, because who wouldn’t be afraid if a heavenly being showed up in the middle of the night? He said why he was there, to bring them good tiding of GREAT JOY. The message that he was bringing them was all good new. However, that good news didn’t mean that they job was changed, it didn’t mean their status in society changed. It did mean that the way they say the world was changed, because they saw it through the lens of Joy.
I wonder what would happen if we begun to look at the world through a lens of joy. What would happen if we saw everything going on around us through that lens? Would we feel so overwhelmed, tired, irritable… the list goes on. What are you going to do this week to choose joy in the midst of uncertainty.
