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day 2014: Sparks of Joy

“Now I am coming to you. I told them many things while I was with them in this world so they would be filled with my joy.

Patti and I are cleaning out the house and making hard decisions on what to keep and what to not keep.  The first inclination is to keep everything, with the thought that someday we might need it or want to use it.  But, you can’t reduce and simplify that way.  There must be a filter.  As I was explaining the dilemma to someone who has recently gone through the same exercise, she said that she and her husband decided that if an item didn’t “spark joy” that it was time for it to go.  I was fascinated with this thought and began applying it to stuff around the house and sure enough, you find somethings do spark joy and others just don’t.  It’s making decisions easier already.  What if we applied that same principle to how we view what we should be working on or not?  Surely, not all things we need to do (because they are assigned to us by someone else) will spark joy?  Or maybe they will.  You see, in our work we don’t always get the chance to pick and choose what we need to do, but we can certainly find choose to find joy in the fact that we are working hard and at our best on whatever we do.  And, when we do get to choose, we can look for that spark of joy before we decide to take on something new.

All the other things we do in life also need to spark joy or we shouldn’t be doing them.  One of the challenges that we have in our faith walk is that more will come at us and fill our lives than we can handle and we must make choices on what we do with our time.  God has given us many choices in what we watch, read, listen and digest into our mind and body.  What if we filtered those through what sparks joy?  You see, true joy is what comes when we are in the presence of God’s gifts.  It’s why a baby or puppy that are innocent can bring us so much joy.  Let’s not confuse happiness or temporary pleasure with joy and let us be able today to discern the difference and also recognize and be grateful for the sparks of joy in our lives.

Reference:  John 17:13 (New Living Translation)