Today’s Theme: Joy
Today’s Reading: Psalm 100
1 Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.ss2 Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing.3 Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.s4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.5 For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.s
If I remember my Thanksgiving story correctly, this is the Psalm that the Pilgrims read/sang as they were about to embark out of the Mayflower and onto the land of the New World. Seems like a very fitting way to start anew…practicing joy. They of course did this when they initiated the first Thanksgiving…even after they had lost I believe over half of their friends and families during the bitter, harsh winter months.
As time continues to march on, as Christmas is fast approaching and soon to be a memory of yesterday for 2011 – I find myself being continually challenged to find those little small reasons to Practice Joy, to keep my head up and my spirits out of the blue. I have to be honest that it is a struggle right now, yet I know this is also part of the journey…for it is in the darkness that I know I seem to push harder into God, get on my knees more to pray and am learning to become more vulnerable in asking for my friends to help hear my needs and giving them the opportunity to respond. Thank you to those friends that are able to do this for me during this time! (Side note, I got FB post from a friend for this article today that talks about humans’ needs to be vulnerable…I LOVE it when God makes His points in multiple ways, don’t you?)
Any who, YouVersion talks about going Christmas caroling and then talking about the experience afterwards; about talking about your favorite song and writing down the lyrics. While I won’t have the opportunity – or am not taking the opportunity – to do this this year, I did have the privilege of singing a lot at church this past Sunday. Here is a link to one of the songs we sung. It was an amazing time, a great time of celebration and joy and love. The church was packed. Hopefully it was just a taste of what this coming weekend will be like…if you have no where to go and if you are interested in seeing a different Jesus than you have seen before, I invite you to one of our many services up and down the San Francisco Peninsula. Find a service that fits your needs here.
Lastly, I will leave you with one of the traditions the kids and I have had these last few years. Actually two traditions that I am making into one this year. There is a church here in the Bay Area that for 3 nights a year sets up an area just as the town of Bethlehem might have looked like 2000+ years ago the night Jesus came into the world, the night God Came Near and became one of us. It is appropriately entitled Bethlehem A.D. There are pharisees, Roman soldiers, kids playing games, towns folk shopping and looking for room at the inns…there are real live animals – and a real live nativity scene. It is crowded – yet it is a lovely reminder of the REALNESS of what our God did in order to reach us.
The other tradition is to actually celebrate Jesus’ birthday with the kids and their friends. I make a cake, we put the candles in it and we sing the song. Eventually I have other plans for the kids to make or donate presents for the occasion as well…but baby steps!
So, it is with this that I am looking forward to a little bit of heaven today – a little bit of joy coming down to earth and momentarily lightening my load that I am carrying.
