Joy dare. Sometimes, it really is.
It’s been more than a month since I was there, and it feels like I don’t even know the person that went. I am not sure I can choose the right word to describe what has happened in my heart and life. Perhaps it would take a plethora of words, and I still wouldn’t find enough to describe the work God has been doing in my heart, gentle but deeply within.
I feel heavier in some places, lighter in others.
I am more awake, and I am more alive.
I am walking slower, and breathing in deeper.
I am holding some things much more loosely and others, much more tightly.
One of those things I am unwilling to let go of; LIFE, especially life with my family.
And somehow, in holding on to LIFE, I’m finding JOY.
I began learning this lesson while in Guatemala. I sat around a table in the early mornings hours with other bloggers, and we were all heavy with the experiences of the week taking its toll on our hearts and souls. And one of the World Help photographers and videographers, scrolling through his pictures he captured that day, found this one. Davis Goslin from Join the Lights, took this picture.
“I like this picture,” he started. He went on to share how we see so much suffering and we capture it, but we need this part too. We need to see joy in life, because they find it, even in the midst of their suffering.
It’s stayed with me.
It was a little spark that has open my eyes a little wider
to find joy even in the midst of the suffering that is around.
I understand a little more why Ann calls it the Joy Dare, the dare to find joy.
And I find it in…
this God-ordained opportunity to go to Guatemala to write and share the experience with you.
the planes and pilots that brought me there and back safely.
the husband and children and mama that sent me with a blessing.
the readers that supported me through prayers and words.
a beautiful hotel we stayed in the first night in Guatemala City.
Nutella cake they served. Have you ever had Nutella cake? Joy in the mouth.
so many new friends I’ve made.
finding there are a lot of beautiful people in this world,
ones that love God and people.
this breathtaking view and hammocks too, at the place we stayed in Hope of Life.
the clean, comfortable accommodations, and knowing that they care.
even though I was a stranger, I kind of felt like I was family.
then feeding us well, and making sure we are well.
learning more about the love of God.
God loving through His people.
seeing as I’ve been taught; we are to be His hands and His feet.
knowing there is more good prepared for me to do.
“For we are His workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus for good works,
which God prepared beforehand
that we should walk in them.”
Ephesians 2:10 NKJV
I will keep moving forward, and I will find what more there is.