Welcome, Joy!

…yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior                                                         Habakkuk 3:18

Yesterday, our pastor, Rev. Dennis Miller, gave a sermon about joy. In explaining the familiar Christmas Carol, Joy to the World, he said that the writer, Isaac Watts, broke from the worship song norms of the time when he wrote about expressing pure joy. He used natural concepts around him rather than just relying on the Psalms as the sole source of lyrics.  

The pastor’s best point however was stating that “Joy is waiting just outside the door for us to let it in”. I really like that idea. What a great behavioral counseling technique! We have the decision to allow joy to be part of our life. We are not just passive recipients of attitudes and moods. We can decide to let joy reign in our lives.

Yes, I know, people face many devastating setbacks and pain in life. Some of those are our making, and some are not. However, we do have a choice about how we receive the things we face in life. We can adopt an attitude of joy in all things. We can decide that joy is possible, and then allow for ways to see it.

We often set ourselves up for certain moods. We have an internal narrative that disposes us to sift information in a certain way. For example, confirmation bias is well known in scientific circles whereby we end up validating long-held beliefs when interpreting data with a sometimes-unknown bias. We get the results that we expect.

So, this beautiful Christmas season, learn to be accepting of joy!

Prayer: Lord, help us to see the joy around us, and to then freely let it in, Amen