Enjoying Life

As complicated as we make it, joy is a simple thing.

It isn't happiness - most of us know that.

It isn't monetary wealth - that should be obvious.

It is something more. Something we should strive for. We are able to find joy when we are able to praise God in what we are doing.

What does that have to do with the new year, though? How does joy help us to lose weight or to become a better person?

photo credit: lusi - sxc.hu

Take losing weight for instance. If you want to lose weight, don't do it in a way that you hate. It'll never work. No matter what you do, if you're not enjoying yourself, you're not going to be living life to the fullest.

Instead, find a way to lose weight (or whatever it is that you're doing) that allows you to praise God. This might mean doing things a little differently than they do it on the Biggest Loser. It might mean running. Or swimming. Or biking. Or all three!

Do what you truly enjoy to truly experience joy.

For me, this means finding a way to take 5000 pictures this year in a way that I find fulfilling. Last year, I had this same goal and fell short. There's a reason, though. I fell short because I let myself become paralyzed by the fact that I wasn't doing it "right" or wasn't becoming a photographer in the same way my friends were.

Don't let the fear of doing something "wrong" paralyze you from doing it at all.

And the best way to avoid this paralyzing fear? To find joy in what you're doing by enjoying what you do enough to be able to praise God.

Now this doesn't mean you have to be singing a song of praise to God while you're on mile twenty-six of your first marathon. Heck, you don't even have to be thinking of him. However, you do need to be enjoying yourself to truly be accomplishing something.

If you decide to praise God because of that - great.

If not, don't feel guilty. God didn't give us freedom in Jesus so that we would feel guilt every time we don't worship him. In fact, it's the exact opposite. Freedom means being able to do anything we enjoy that puts us in a better position to find joy and to be able to praise God.

Today, do yourself a favor and enjoy life.

You'll find yourself that much closer to discovering true joy.

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Questions: What do you enjoy doing? What brings you the most joy? What facet of your life is hardest to enjoy?

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More Reflections

You can see my first set of reflections here.

After reading a blog post from a blog that I truly enjoy, I find myself wanting to write simply for the sake of writing. Not for the comments. Not to send a message. Not to rattle cages or to make someone laugh. I want to write just to write.

Why? Because I find joy in it. Sometimes I find purpose and meaning in it. I don't know that it's "okay" in my mind to write without a purpose, but I wonder if I could be wrong in my thinking.

I write because I believe that God can communicate through my words. However, I know that he could just as easily find another way to give you a pat on the back today. Or to let you hear those words you desperately need. Am I wrong in thinking that God wants to use me?

This hasn't been the easiest few months. I enjoy most things less than I would like to. I believe that God loves us enough to let us enjoy life. But what happens when the joy ceases? Or decreases? Again, does this mean I was wrong and that I'm not to enjoy life? That doesn't seem to make much sense. But then again, that's the case with a lot of happenings in life. Trying to makes heads or tails of these events just makes them more painful.

I know a lot of things to be true. I'm smart, not because of anything I've done, but simply because that's how God created me. I'm not as quiet as I appear - I simply enjoy hearing what others have to say. I know that God has transformed my life in a way that no scientist can explain.

It's those things that I'm unsure of, though, that get me. When it's quiet and no one else is around - something else I enjoy - those things badger me, begging me to validate them.

I know, though, that God never intends those things to be known. Instead, he simply asks that I try to do what he wants me to do, and trust that it'll make sense in the end.

Joy

Learned a new formula today: a spoon of pumpkin + a Pumpkin Spice K-Cup = pumpkin pie coffee. Great discovery, indeed.

Joy is confusing, really.

Few of us really understand it, myself included. Is it happiness? Why don't we just call it that?

Or is it something deeper? Something less circumstantial. Something more fulfilling, less fleeting. Joy seems to be elusive for most, and yet, it is evident when it is present in others.

So what is it? Where does it come from?

In my mind, joy is a derivative of hope. Without hope, you cannot have joy. And sure, hope might seem circumstantial, but not true hope. If you have true hope within you, it never disappears. It isn't contingent on whether or not you pass a class, get a certain degree, or find a certain job. It doesn't need people to like you or to support you, and it doesn't need you to be successful or famous.

Indeed, joy is hard to come by, because true hope is hard to come by. It seems elusive. It appears fleeting.

Where is your hope? And is it true? Or is it merely a shadow of what could be? Do you find your hope waning with your bank account? Or is it dependent on something that never changes.

Think. Reflect. Wonder. If only for 5 minutes, consider whether your hope is true. Then you will see why your joy fades. Why it only seems like happiness, veiled by a mask of something greater.

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These are my Five Minute thoughts, unedited, unadulterated, unprepared, for this Friday. Check out The Gypsy Mama if you want to know more!

Not Quite a Bucket List

Today I'm featuring a guest post from one of my closest friends, Bekah. She's a great writer and an inspirational person, as her blog will testify. Leave her some rockin' feedback and check out the other stuff she's written while you're at it!

Not Quite a Bucket List

A bucket list.  I’ve contemplated whether or not I want one of these.  I mean, I am a list person.  I make lists of things to do each day.  Lists of things for which to shop.  Lists for different projects at work.  Sometimes I end up making lists of all the lists I need to make.  But somehow, in all this list making, I’ve never made a bucket list.  Hmmm… kind of weird.

Despite my lack of a bucket list, I did decide the other day that there are many things I love to do, but never really take the time to do them.  I began a list, similar to a bucket list in the sense that they are things I want to make time to do as I go through life.  Yet, it is very different in the fact that I’ve probably done most of these things already and they aren’t really once in a life time things.  In fact, they are almost all things I wish I could do every day.   The title of my list you may ask….?

THINGS THAT BRING ME JOY

Who doesn’t want a little more joy in life?  Even when we are very joyful it’s nice to add a little extra.  So here’s what I did: 

I started this list a couple weeks or so ago.  I’m planning to write (or maybe print off the computer) each of the things on this list on a little card.   Then, I’m going to put them in a jar or dish or hat or something I randomly find laying around the house.  Each morning I’m going to draw a slip of paper from the container and try to do that thing in the day. 

Here’s my list so far:

Things that Bring Me Joy:

1. Make a card to mail to a friend
2. Go for a run
3. Go for a walk… and take your camera with!
4. Find somewhere to volunteer for an hour or two
5. Go for a hike
6. Write a letter to a friend
7. Call a friend you haven’t heard from in a while
8. Make something special for dinner
9. Call a friend and invite them over for dinner
10. Bake some bread from scratch
11. Wander through the blog-o-sphere
12. Go to Niagara Falls (for some this may be on their “bucket list” but for me, being that it’s only 20 miles away, I can basically do this anytime I want)
13. Go rent a movie to watch and pop some popcorn on the stove
14. Play your guitar
15. Write a silly song about something that happened today
16. Read a book
17. Go to the library and read a bunch of children’s books
18. Write a blog post.
19. Eat some ice cream
20. Get all dressed up for dinner (and either go out, or even just get all dressed up and stay at home.)
21. Take a bubble bath
22. Make plans for your next vacation (even if it is a dream vacation you may never actually take.)
23. Plant something
24. Cut some fresh flowers
25. Take some flowers to someone… just because
26. Find a kid to hang out with
27. Kickbox to some favorite songs
28. Go to the farmer’s market
29. Watch a sunrise
30. Go to the park and swing on the swing
31. Color in a coloring book
32. Be crafty… scrapbook, decoupage, crochet, etc.
33. Make some homemade paper
34. Find something to do in town that you’ve never done before
35. Go for a drive, roll down the windows  and turn up the music and sing along
36. Do something nice for someone or leave them a note… and do it all without letting them know or figure out who did it
37. Go lay in the grass and stare at the clouds (or, if in winter, go build a snowman)

My list continues to grow….  I plan to keep blank slips of paper near my container and add to it often. 

But I wonder… what would be on your list?  What are the things that if you did them everyday you would never get sick of them… the things that just bring a smile to your face… the things that may seem a little crazy or childish or whatever, but you enjoy doing anyway.  What would be on your list of “Things that Bring Me Joy”?

Okay… now go  make your list and start enjoying life a little more each day!