Advent Daily Devotional: WEEK of JOY: Day 18- Wed, Dec 15
… for you have been my help,
and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy. — Psalm 63:7
The light of the eyes rejoices the heart,
and good news refreshes the body. — Proverbs 15:30
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Light the three Advent candles. Last in the set of flames: joy flares.
In addition to developing a positive outlook, cultivating gratitude, and practicing kindness, joy often comes through spiritual, emotional, psychological and social connections. Though it begins internally, like hope and peace, it is fed through relationships.
In The Book of Joy, Desmond Tutu says, “We are fragile creatures, and it is from this weakness, not despite it, that we discover the possibility of true joy.” How does vulnerability become a threshold for joy?
Your capacity to need others and to be needed by others — this reciprocity within the human experience — creates connection. Joy grows out of relationships, even in the toughest of times, as well as the most stable and rewarding of times.
How do you feed the light in others? In what ways do you permit your own inner light to be grown, nurtured, and protected?
Whatever the situation you are considering, who else has shared this experience? What can you learn from others about the circumstances upon which you are reflecting? Desmond Tutu shares, “What the Dalai Lama and I are offering … is a way of handling your worries: thinking about others. You can think about others who are in a similar situation … who have survived, even thrived. It does help quite a lot to see yourself as part of a greater whole.”
Joy shines in combination with the other candles. Let it ignite in your life. Know you are not alone. — Rev Gail
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Find joy in everything you choose to do. Every job, relationship, home … It’s your responsibility to love it, or change it.
– Chuck Palahniuk
We all walk in the dark and each of us must learn
to turn on his or her own light. – Earl Nightingale
Christmas Caroling to Neighbors
Advent Daily Devotional: WEEK of JOY: Day 17 -Tue, Dec 14
I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you,
and that your joy may be complete. — John 15:11
Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun.
— Ecclesiastes 11:7
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For now, begin with the simple act of being present to whatever is going on within you and around you. Pay attention to your body and its experience.
For instance, engage your senses. What do you see? Hear? Smell? Feel? Taste? Ground yourself by taking this inventory of your senses.
Now focus on a few simple strategies to cultivate joy through bodily self-care.
Inhale. Hold your breath a moment. Exhale slowly. Breathe.
Mindful breathing offers healthful benefits. It lowers your heart rate and blood pressure, and helps regulate your body’s capacity to manage stress and fatigue. It reduces depression, burnout, and negative thinking. It boosts your capacity to manage chronic pain and positively affects the side effects of other illnesses or conditions such as diabetes.
Repeat your breathing cycle. Then repeat it again.
Now smile. Science urges that the act of smiling triggers healthy neurological responses. Floods your brain with positive, empowering chemistry. Improves your wellbeing psychologically and physically.
Joy is connected to your body-mind-spirit connections. While it grows out of spiritual, emotional, and psychological practices, it remains an embodied experience, too.
Let your senses ground you in your surrounds and in your own skin. Now inhale deeply. Hold your breath. Smile wider. As you exhale, blow out the Advent candles. — Rev Gail
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To get the full value of joy you must have
someone to divide it with. ― Mark Twain
An age is called “dark,” not because the light fails to shine
but because people refuse to see it. – James Michener
Advent Daily Devotional: WEEK of JOY: Day 16 – Mon, Dec 13
You show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy… — Psalm 16:11
I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you;
I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations … — Isaiah 42:6
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Light the three candles. Note how hope and peace come prior to joy. Yet together they shine more brightly, because each needs the other to create more radiance.
So what spiritual practices support joy? The Book of Joy, a shared interview with the Dalai Lama and the Archbishop Desmond Tutu, cites ‘the three factors that seem to have the greatest influence … are our ability to reframe our situation more positively, our ability to experience gratitude, and our choice to be kind and generous.’ This week, you will re-visit each of these concepts as fertile points of growth and change.
Already among meditations on hope informed by Option B and Reason for Hope, you explored the practice of re-framing your worldview to be realistic and positive, with an expectation that you are empowered to create change. In the reflections on peace, daily habits of gratitude were one of the spiritual practices you considered. Finally, the Book of Joy also emphasizes outward-focused acts of kindness and generosity.
Which of these habits is already part of your life? Which one do you need to strengthen?
Let joy burn along with hope and peace. They are all connected, and they feed each other’s light. — Rev Gail
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When you do things from your soul,
you feel a river moving in you, a joy. ― Rumi
Give light, and the darkness will disappear of itself. – Desiderius Erasmus
Advent Daily Devotional: WEEK of JOY
House of Joy — Rumi
If you knew yourself for even one moment,
if you could just glimpse
your most beautiful face,
maybe you wouldn’t slumber so deeply
in that house of clay.
Why not move into your house of joy
and shine into every crevice!
For you are the secret
Treasure-bearer, and always have been.
Didn’t you know?
Advent Daily Devotional: WEEK of JOY: Day 15 – Sun, Dec 12
For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song,
and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. — Isaiah 55:12
No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket,
but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.
— Matthew 5:15
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Joy becomes the focus of our candle-lighting this week. How does the light of joy shine in your life?
Joy arises from an internal and spiritual wellspring. It does not depend on external conditions. It exists, independent of circumstances. The Dalai Lama states, in the Book of Joy, “We create most of our suffering, so it should be logical that we also have the ability to create more joy. It simply depends on the attitudes, the perspectives, and the reactions we bring to situations and to our relationships with other people.”
Do you know someone who shines with delight, passion, humor, or joy in the midst of chaos or trauma? How is this possible?
When you light the third Advent candle, and add it to the trio of flames for this season, along with the ones for hope and peace, you invite joy into your heart and mind. — Rev Gail
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… joy came from deeply held spiritual beliefs but it also came from a place even beyond that. Joy comes when you make peace with who you are, where you are, why you are, and who you are not with. When you need nothing more than your truth and the love of a good God to bring peace … — Sandra Brown
We are indeed the light of the world —
but only if our switch is turned on. – John Hagee