{Be Real} Spreading His Joy

We met in a tent.  A tent full of twinkle lights.  We were at a creative conference in a community we were just starting to feel connected to.  But it was our first night there.  Something drew each one of us to that tent in the middle of that big field, it’s lights sparkling in the dark.

Perhaps that’s what we were all looking for.  Somewhere our light could sparkle in the dark.

The tent was set up with cushions, blankets.   Something about that environment made us all feel at home there, and protected.  We were all open to joy, hungry for it even.  So when 6 girls from all over the country showed up inside, when we saw all the nuances we carried from our stories and the places we grew up, the things that made us different, the laughter started and it didn’t stop.  For hours.

Thinking about it now, it must have sounded beautiful from the outside.  A twinkle lighted wonder in the dark billowing with laughter.

Real new friendships started there for me.  Friendships that took me through a dark season that ensued.  A place where I felt displaced.  Those friends and I walked into each other’s darkness, we shared real and honest and somehow never stopped laughing.  That laughter was oxygen.

We gave each other a gift; and through our friendship, God gave us all more of Him.

God gives us this divine opportunity every day. Through us, He can give the world more of Him. We don’t realize it most days – that when we walk through the room, His presence shows up with us. And we can carry God and hope we have in Him into any situation.

We can listen to people’s stories, and really listen. We can cry with them. We can laugh with them. We can spread joy by just being present with people, and carrying a lightness in our souls.  One of my favorite verses about the Proverbs 31 woman is,

She is clothed with strength and dignity. She laughs without fear of the future.

-Proverbs 31:25 (NLT)

We can remind each other’s souls: when we are rooted in our hope in Jesus, we don’t have to look at the future with fear. We can laugh together; because we know who is ultimately in control, and always good; we know the One who works miracles, the One who wraps us in love and surprises us with joy. So we can laugh.  

I’ll confess its hard for me to laugh sometimes.  That deep soul laugh that doesn’t take everything so seriously.  I love to laugh, but my secret is that it’s because I can take life so seriously, that I need the release! Don’t you?

Laughter has a way of reminding us that even though this world feels so heavy, there is a way out from underneath its weight.  Jesus came to us to be that way out, to carry our cross and our burdens and give us ultimate hope of heaven and bring heaven down here to earth.

When we are present and share in each other’s suffering, what we find on the other end is a joy that can’t be diminished.  Because the joy that surfaces is ultimate hope in Jesus.

We will never be another person’s ultimate hope, and we will never be the source of their joy.  God is the only source.

But we can carry them into His presence and His joy.

We first carry ourselves into His presence, so we can be filled to the brim “with all the fullness of God.” (Eph. 3:19)  It is worth it to be daily devoted to our God, to open His word when nobody is looking, pray and talk with Him throughout the day,  stay close to His voice, and know for ourselves what His joy tastes like.

When we are anchored in our own joy in the Lord, it will naturally spill over onto others.

We can be women that call one another home.  Women that show up through the seasons and sing our soul songs back to each other when we forget the words.  Women who are present in another’s suffering, shedding tears and reminding them of their ultimate hope.  We can be women who bravely release laughter into the world knowing that nothing can ever steal our joy.  We can be Jesus to people.

What greater gift could we give our parents, our friends, our communities, than daily glimpses of Heavenly light?

When God created you, He meant for others to see His face in yours.  When they look at you, they’ll see Him in the dimples of your smile, and the way your eyes twinkle like string lights, lighting up all the dark.

 

“For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness,

who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God

in the face of Jesus Christ.”

-2 Cor. 4:6