Where Is The Joy?

Last weekend I attended our family reunion .  It was a  wonderful time of fellowship, good food, laughter, picture taking, etc.  And, as always, so hard to say goodbye to those whom we will not see again until next year.   During the weekend as I visited with my loved ones and we shared pictures and stories of what was happening in our lives since we were last together, the emphasis was on the good times, happy events.  But I also knew that behind each smile there were memories of loss, disappointment, even tragedy. 

             And yet … the joy was there.

As I was thinking today about the difference between "joy" and "happiness" I began humming this little song from the late ‘60s .. "Happiness Is The Lord" by Ira Stanphil. The real nugget of truth is in the refrain... 

Real joy is mine, even when teardrops start.

I’ve found the secret, it’s Jesus in my heart!

(Ira Stanphil, 1968)

We’ve all cried tears of joy … at the birth of a baby, weddings, greeting loved ones after a prolonged absence.  But what about the tears we’ve shed in the face of tragedy, loss, disappointment, heartbreak?  Where is the joy in those moments? 
                                It’s there.

For those who do not have a relationship with the Lord, their happiness is derived from the circumstances they find themselves in at any given moment.  And they call it “joy.” But nothing can be compared to the deep, pure joy that only a personal relationship with God can give.  In Psalm 4, David finds himself in dire circumstances – His beloved son, Absalom, had led a rebellion against him, stolen his crown, and had driven David from the palace.  He was on the run and hiding in caves.  And yet, he penned …

You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound. I will lie down and sleep in peace, for You alone, O LORD, will make me dwell in safety. (Psalm 4:7-8)

Faced with the loss of his kingdom and, worse yet, betrayal by the son he loved more than life, David declared that his heart was filled with joy, then lay down to a peaceful sleep, secure in the knowledge that the Lord God, Himself, was watching over him.  Earlier in this Psalm, David wrote, “You have relieved me of my distress.”  The word “relieved” in that passage actually means “enlarged.”  David was acknowledging the growth of his relationship with the Lord in these times of distress. 

I have found that in some of my darkest moments, I have known the sweetness of His presence more than at any other times in my life.  It’s as if He is pulling me closer to Him, protecting me from the storm that is raging around me.  This is the pure, true joy that runs deep and still, even when “happiness” may be temporarily hidden from our view. 
                    
                                It’s there.             

                       

Dedicated to ...

My first entry as I’m getting my feet wet so to speak, will be to dedicate this venture to the three people who had the biggest impact in shaping who I would become …

        My parents, Mitch & Marjorie Brown

        And my dear Aunt Jo Newton, my mother’s
        only sibling.

It would be easy to say that my dad certainly lived out his life’s purpose.  He served his country in the Navy then later worked for many years for the federal government. He was a faithful and loving husband, a good provider for his family and an amazing father to his four little girls.  In addition, he traveled for many years as part of an evangelistic team, the Virginia Travelers, a southern gospel quartet. They traveled the east coast and southern states singing in concerts and holding church services every weekend.  Countless lives were touched and changed as a result of this ministry.   Today, he lives in a nursing home but .. did he achieve his life’s purpose? 

I’m thinking … yes.

My mother was a stay at home mother and housewife.  She never worked outside our home.  She kept house and raised four girls. She made nearly all of our clothes.  I was always so proud to wear my new dress to school that she had made for me.  Mom hated to cook .. but we always had delicious meals, including a hot breakfast every morning before leaving for school.  She was a Girl Scout leader, served in the Women’s ministry in every church we attended, and sang in the choirs.  When Dad began to show signs of Parkinson’s and his mental and physical health was declining, she took care of him.  When it became necessary to move him into a nursing facility, it broke her heart, but she was there every day of the week to spend the day with him and made sure he was clean, dressed neatly, and had the kinds of foods he loved.  She was his guardian angel .. or maybe guardian bulldog would be more accurate!  She never had a career, she never taught a class, never wrote a book.   Only close friends and family members ever knew her name.   Mom was 85 when she died unexpectedly in a car accident in January of this year.  Did she achieve her life’s purpose? 

Yes … she did. 

And Aunt Jo …  Everyone needs an Aunt Jo in their life.  Seven years older, she was Mom’s only sibling.  She had been a widow for nearly 30 years and never had children of her own.   My sisters and I were her kids … she was our second Mom.  She and Mom were so different.  Because she never had a family she worked all her life and retired as an accountant for the Naval Shipyard.  So she was very well-versed in money and business matters where Mom had always just waited for Dad to give her the “house allowance” each week.   Aunt Jo was hilariously funny which made it so much fun when she came to visit.  After we were grown and Uncle Charles had moved on to Heaven, Aunt Jo, Mom & Dad became the “three Muskateers. You never saw one without the other two close behind.   And she studied the Word.  It was nothing to find her in her robe at noon, sitting at the kitchen table poring over three or four Bible versions and whichever study book she was going through at the time.   She was the “go to” person for in-depth discussions of the Word and the goodness of God.  Aunt Jo was the Bible scholar of the three.  She was in the car accident with Mom, and died an hour later.  She never had a family of her own but she definitely left her fingerprints on the lives of my sisters and me, and our children.  She studied the Word intently, but we were her only audience.  So .. when she walked through those Pearly Gates … had she fulfilled her purpose?

Yes.

When I look at these three awesome yet ordinary, anointed yet flawed, gifted yet relatively unknown individuals, it is clear to me that they each had a God-given purpose for being here and they lived it out to the end.  The point I’m trying to make in this dedication is that God has given each of us certain strengths, talents, and desires and using those strengths, talents and desires will propel us toward fulfilling that purpose.  It may not be as simple today as it was for my parents’ generation … we have so many more opportunities, more choices, more doors to choose from.  But that just makes it more exciting.  One thing I’m sure of … we were designed to live our lives with purpose and joy!

Getting Started

For quite a few years now .. I’ve had this compelling urge to write.  It started out as a small tickle that could easily be brushed off, then it became more of a gentle tugging that I could put on a back burner and justify my reluctance with the busyness of raising a houseful of kids, homeschooling, working at my home-based transcription service, and serving in my church and community.   As the years flew by that gentle tugging gradually became more of a tug-of-war between me and what I’ve always recognized as the “still, small voice” of the Holy Spirit.  Then last weekend He brought out the “big guns” … my baby sister, ‘Lena.  Down from Seattle for our Sisters’ Retreat, she stayed over a couple of days with me and, as we sat at the kitchen table sharing our hearts, I told her about this inner battle I had been waging for years.   Within the hour she had this blog set up, had made a weekly schedule for my life to include writing and Bible study, and had her bags packed, waiting at the door for her trip home. 

Is that you, Mary Poppins?

So here I am … trying to find my way around this new (to me) world of blogging. 

I’ve named this blog “Purpose and Joy” because that is the theme or style of my life coaching approach.  Bottom line … no matter what circumstances we find ourselves in … good, bad, or somewhere in between … we each have a God-given purpose to fulfill and, in doing that, our lives can be filled with pure joy.   (There is a difference between joy and happiness .. but we’ll save that for a later discussion.)  We'll see how this all unfolds in the next week or two.  Please be patient with me as I learn how to navigate my way through settings, designs, templates and the like.  But together we'll discover how to live our lives with purpose and joy!  

                                 

Hugs and blessings,  

Deb