Have you ever had a time in your life when you laughed until you cried. When ever cell in you body was exploding with joy, so much to the point that you could not even move…or breathe…or talk? I hope that all of us have encountered at one time or another these beautiful moments. They are like air in our lungs, or food that we eat, a necessity for life. It is in these times that I am reminded of this concept of unspeakable joy. What does that mean? I heard this song once that talks about God giving us “unspeakable joy” and to be quite honest I never really knew what it meant. So I have set out on a mission to find out the meaning of this phrase. I am not an expert researcher or a theologian. I find it suffice to look into a single book to find the answer to this question…that book is the Bible. To me the best place to find the meaning of joy is from the One who created joy and created us with the ability to experience this emotion. According to the Bible joy is an amazing and powerful emotion. Joy has the ability to make us strong, it lifts us up, makes us laugh, is a demonstration of God himself, is available to all people, anytime, anywhere, and finally can leave us speechless. Interesting? Joy that is unspeakable cannot be fully explained only experienced. And to this I ask if anyone wants some of this joy? I do, I mean in this world that we live in today depression seems to be a staple word in our society. I am a counselor and poeple often come into my office, flop down in the chair like a pile of dirty laundry and tell me how depressed they are. How this world has nothing for them, how people have hurt them and then they ask how I can help them. I often ask when was the last time they had a good laugh? Most cannot even remember, so at the end of the session I send them off and tell them that their homework for next week is to have an encounter with joy, I mean a really good laugh, one that makes their eyes water, their mouth get dry, their belly hurt and that leaves them speechless. The results are life changing! So when was the last time you experienced this unspeakable joy in your life? When was the last time it hurt to breathe because you were laughing to hard? Joy is something that is experienced it bubbles up inside of us and it can be a lifestyle that we choose to live on a daily basis. It isn’t something that happens to us we happen onto it, we choose to have joy even in the midst of our culture that is like a vacuum and literally sucks the life and joy out of us on a moment by moment basis. So today I encourage you choose joy, although it is unspeakable it is absolutely attainable!
Category Archives: Devotional
From the Inside Looking Out…
Hello…is there any body out there?? Do you ever feel like this…like a fish in a bowl, starring out into the world and wondering if anyone is starring back in? Sometimes I look out and see the business of the world and feel like it would just be easier to live my life here in my own bubble. But then there are times that loneliness overwhelmes me and all I want is to get out of my bowl. While I feel as though it is very comforting to stay in my comfortable and familiar fish bowl it can be very limiting at times and I know that in the grand scheme of life this is NOT what I am meant to do. I need to be out there experiencing life, meeting people, making friends and enjoying the gift of giving and service that are part of my DNA. So what is it that causes us to want to stay in our little bowl all alone? I suppose that fear could play a big part in that, our past experiences that have rendered us hurt and broken. Our identity crisis that inhibits us to venture out into the world and help humanity.
What do you see in the mirror?
When you look in a mirror what do you see? All of us see something. We all stand in front of the mirror and stare into that reflective smooth surface and see something…or someone, don’t we?I was reminded the other day of the importance of how I see myself. My 9 month old daughter Mercy was in the bathroom with me and without my noticing she was starring at me as I applied a soft coat of mascara to my eyelashes. As I watched myself she watched me. I felt like her little eyes were piercing my heart and exposing some of the lies within. I realized that as she watches me she will discover what I believe about myself,by how I interact wit the woman in the mirror. This will give her a framework from which to operate in one day, when she growns up. Like a mime she will study me and slowly and carefully mirror her identity on on mine. I sensed weighty cloak of conviction on my shoulders, it was like a warning, like the feeling you get when a there is a fire drill in school and although you shrug it off the sense that this could be very important one day remains. So my eyes met with the woman in the mirror and I smiled, mostly so my daughter would see my interaction but deep inside of me I was confronting me fears. I would guess that many of us are cruel than kind to the person we see in the mirror. Each morning we wake up, step into their presence and begin our daily verbal abuse session. We say things like, we are not good enough, tall enough, thin enough, beautiful enough, we discredit our eyes, our hair, our height, our skin, our clothes…we tell ourselves that we are ugly, stupid, fake, annoying, worthless. Does any of that sound familiar to anyone out there? Why? Why do we do this to ourselves? I mean don’t we get enough abuse in a day as it is? Like the world we live in is not cruel enough, we need to add more hurtful words, like the icing on the top of the cake. I am reminded of a book my Sandra Wilson called Hurt People Hurt People. I remember when I was first introduced to this concept of why people hurt others and on the contrary why people love others. We give away what we have recieved. If we have been loved much we love, if we have been hurt we hurt others. So then with that knowledge lets go back and re examine the person in the mirror. Are you hurting them or loving them? Because, although they may seem like nobody special to you, they are someone, someone that God created, in his very image, and they are valuable in His eyes. We all need to remember that there are little eyes watching us, whether we realize it or not. There is a generation that is watching, looking with hungry eyes to find those who are true to their identity, who see themselves in the light of eternity. This generation needs our affirmation and love, but how can we give it if we have not recieved it. So here is my challenge. Walk into the bathroom, stare into the mirror, allow your eyes to lock with theirs, smile at that person and say; “the Father says you are beautuiful, and I am choosing to believe that His words are true!”
Fresh out of the Oven…
Have you ever walked into a room and noticed the mouth watering aroma of freshly baked bread? The smell seems to hang in the air. It is heavenly. When bread comes right out of the oven you can taste the difference. It has unique freshness about it that is not matched by the store bought bread or even the bread that was baked yesturday. Here’s a thought. What would the bread taste like if it were fresh out of someone elses mouth? Can you picture it? Gross isn’t it? Previously chewed, mixed with saliva and God knows what else, layed out on a platter for you to enjoy. Nasty. Sometimes I feel like this is the case in our lives, in the christian culture. Rather than eating fresh bread out of the oven to choose to chew on regergitated manna. We CHOOSE this each day, when we decide to live our lives based on christian hype or theology rather than fresh bread from the Word of God. We use others ideas of spiritual experiences to satisfy the hunger in our own lives. I do this and now that I am aware of it, I kinda feel sick when I think of it. How many times have you read something in a book that really resonates in your Spirit and as a result you read it over and over. And the next day you read it again, you talk about the idea with a friend and formulate in depth prophetic words and meanings. You do with for weeks and even months until finally it begins to loose its flavour. You begin to question God, wondering why he is taking you into the wilderness, why you cannot feel his presence or his power? And if you are like me, you whine. Feverently seeking God to answer these deep questions of his existance, when all the while you have been ignoring his Spirit and his FRESH bread which he makes available on demand. I am not saying that it is bad to talk to people about spiritual experiences or prophetic revelation, my concern comes when that is all we are doing. It is exciting and fun when God begins to move and we look ahead to the potential of what he is doing, but we neglect to follow him every step of the way. We take advantage of the outcome and miss out on the best part – THE JOURNEY! I once had a vision where God showed me a woman in labour and I was in the room along with a few other people, watching and experiencing this birth. It was hard and laboursome, I remember feeling like I believed in this baby and I was going to stick it out no matter what. In the end she had the baby, when I held the baby in my arms I heard the Lord speak to me and say that it will be a celebration for many people to see this child but for you and those who laboured with the mother, you joy with be even greater. Do you get it? Can you see the parallel in our walks with God? The joy and even greater satisfaction comes when we larbour with him and go through the journey together. It is not just all about the child or the end result, everyone will enjoy that, but there is a sacredness and an intimacy reserved for relationship that is built during the time this child is coming forth. It is about the journey. The relationships that are cultivated, between God and US. So what will you choose today? Regergitated manna or fresh bread? The choice is ours. The journey is His. The joy is guarenteed. I believe when we begin to consume fresh bread we will exude an aroma so irrisitable, that it will draw all people, regardless of background. We all need to be fed. We are all hungry. And we all know the fresh bread when we smell it!
Passion for Family 