Joy

An underused word.

So, where does it come from and how is it related to happiness? Here's my definition: Happiness is something that I have worked at manufacturing from the outside in and joy comes from God from the inside out.

A few weeks ago I started to ask God to provide joy for me and was shocked with the tiny but beautiful moments in my life where my heart burst open like a spring. The most surprising and seemingly ordinary, was a moment at which I heard God say in my spirit, "Summer, here is beauty for your morning, enjoy." Right then, the sun burst through the leaves glittering and shimmering. Even more surprising was that my heart rose up to meet it. (Let me tell you that it was definetely not self-created because I was marching up killer hill from South Beach towards St. Basils with 2 kids in the stroller, exhausted.) But, wow, I received beauty and couldn't help but laugh!

What a total revelation - I can trust the creator of joy to lovingly hand it out. God just wants us to know that He is the Giver, the Lover, the Bestower...Of course!


Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. (NIV James 1:17)

AND below, thanks to the easily understandable Message Bible:

Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle. James 1:17 (The Message)