Bubbling Up / Flowing Out: Illuminate Joy (day 3)

Near the end of Joanna’s words yesterday she said, “Let joy bubble from your soul and flow out like a fountain to the world around you!”

That phrase really hit me.  Joy bubbles – it flows and gurgles like a fountain – joy is not yours alone but it’s shared with those around you.

This realization ask two things of me:

First, what gives me that kind of feeling?  So often we put a lot of time and energy into things that only suck every bit of life out of us.  Why do we do this?  Sometimes it’s unavoidable but often we do it out of some misplaced sense of duty and obligation.  Sometimes even from some sub-conscious place of self-abuse.  Why do we do these things to ourselves?

God wills joy for us, the advent-ure that we are on and await is meant to be a journey that includes bubbling joy.  So what gives you that kind of joy?  Where do you find that occurring in your life, and how can you re-arrange some of the furniture of your life to maximize this joy?

The second thing I think of is that our joy isn’t something that is meant to be for us alone.  As much as we like to think about what makes us happy – God is in the business of bringing “Joy to the World,” for God “so loves the world that God gave God’s only son.”  So even while we ask what brings us joy we are then asked the question: does it also bring joy to others?  God’s joy is not something that gives us joy at other’s expense but it bubbles up and flows out.  It brings us joy but in the actualizing of that joy it also lifts other’s spirits.  When we illuminate our joy we become sources of illumination and joy for others.

Where do you find such joy, and how are you a bubbling up and flowing out joy in the life of the world?