Good morning…
This week I have become increasingly more grateful for two things I often take for granted:
- A solid roof above my head.
- A chance to come in out of the rain.
Many people in our world do not have these two simple luxuries right now. Physically, emotionally, collectively, we have experienced harsh weather, driving rains and terrifying winds, searing heat and uncontrollable fires. My heart of compassion has grown ten sizes this week as I have felt grateful for a sturdy roof over my head and a generous friend’s beach home in which to take refuge. From a peaceful place of solid security, I have shared genuine joy, fascinating photos, and prayerful solidarity with those who are suffering.
Returning to our Atlanta roof and home, I now gather two soulful symbols of the extreme joy and the deep sorrow I have experienced with our community over the years. (This richly woven web of interconnectivity becomes a blanket of comfort as another father of kids the same age as our oldest daughter passed away suddenly yesterday.)
The first symbol of solidarity is a blanket embroidered with the word JOY given to me by a group of women at the end of our semester’s study of Kay Warren’s book Choose Joy: Because Happiness Isn’t Enough. The second gift, an original painting dated April 2014, was given by a second class completing the same book. On the back of that painting, which hangs in our home, reads these two book quotes as a beacon of the joy for which we are all created.
“Joy is the settled assurance that God is in control of all the details of my life, the quiet confidence that ultimately everything is going to be alright, and the determined choice to praise God in all things.”
“One day, in the brightness of his coming, we will meet him face to face. And when we do, the tracks of joy and sorrow will merge. The sorrow will disappear forever, and only the joy will remain.”
Don’t you realize that together you have become God’s inner sanctuary and that the Spirit of God makes his permanent home in you? (1 Corinthians 3:16, TPT).
…Sue…
