What does it take to be happy? Just joy. MAKE CHRISTIANITY JOYFUL AGAIN!
I wish more people would self-identify as happy. Maybe these thoughts will help. I like to self-identify as happy, even when I don’t feel like it. Be a joy dispenser, not a joy quencher! (Search for: The Joy Of Early Christianity.)
When good things happen to people, enjoy their joy as if it is your own joy, and quickly it will be! There’s great joy in discovering heart-felt, common interests and experiences with a stranger. Try it and see.
Where there’s little heart-felt gratitude, joy is hard to find. Over analysis, in any situation, will squeeze the joy out of it. Sometimes you just need to let your heart flow with appreciation. Crying for joy is an amazing experience. Why hold back happy tears?
Trying to get joy into a closed heart is like trying to force a straw thru a solid concrete wall. A guilty conscience finds no real joy, but a forgiven one makes joy for real! You can listen to music to dull your pain, or you can listen to music to release and enhance your joy. (It’s not the same.)
Joy isn’t something that you figure out. It’s something that you cultivate to flow from within. The more we surrender to the risen Jesus, the more joy flows from within. When I actively adore Jesus a door opens within me for His joy to pour thru.
Let Jesus send joy thru your heart like your favorite music flows thru your favorite devise.
We walk past joyful scenes many times everyday, yet we often neglect to notice them, appreciate them, and celebrate them. Joy isn’t a drunken reaction. Laughter can be forced, faked, or alcohol induced, but it’s far more fun when it freely flows from rivers of inner joy. Fun is fickle and fading but joy will keep your heart jumping with wonder, gratitude and astonishment.
To notice, ponder, and appreciate beauty, releases joy. Some characteristics of joy are: spontaneity, sincerity, appreciation, kindness, compassion, clear conscience, forgiveness, an open heart. We can get so caught up in striving for a mere moment of joy that we miss out on manifold joyful moments.
There’s sure to be some joy somewhere in your soul. Search for it, soak it up, and share it with others. Overlooked joy (both in the world around us and in our own heart) leaves us emotionally impoverished.
There are certain things that don’t belong on an airplane and certain thoughts that don’t belong in a human mind. Those thoughts kill joy.
