Listen

Watch what I am about to do to all your oppressors at that time. I will deliver the lame; I will gather the outcast. I will change their shame into praise and fame throughout the earth.

Zephaniah 3:19 

Think

We find ourselves in a week where each year we sing and talk about joy. It is a word that is used as a synonym for happy. However, they are not interchangeable. Happiness is a state of mind. Joy, on the other hand, can be chosen deliberately. Joy is a gift from God, rooted in faith. Joy has a way of sustaining our whole selves in the midst of anything and everything that life may bring.

When I think about joy, I think about Mary and her journey. She certainly was not feeling cool, calm, and collected. She was pregnant and, though she trusted God, there had to be so many moments of confusion and even doubt. Her relationship to Joseph, to her family, to the community was forever changed by her pregnancy. And yet, Mary still speaks of joy. Her joy is not filled with bubblegum and glitter. It is joy that is her anchor as she trusts in God’s movement in and through her.

Amy Kim Kyremes-Parks

Question to Ponder:

How might you foster joy in the midst of so much going on around you?

Pray

God of possibilities, thank you for the strong and subtle ways you have created me to live in a world of beauty and brokenness. Forgive me when I choose happiness instead of fostering joy. Help me to seek after the joy that comes even in the midst of struggle. Amen.

Go

You are the God of justice

You are the God who sees

You are the God who heals and

Who loves the world through me

We believe our love can change things

We will not live silently

You are the God of justice

You are the God who sees

You oh Lord are with us

We will not be afraid