Rediscover Joy Archives | Lynn H. Blackburn

Thoughtful Thursdays :: Joy Dare 2012

Lynn Blackburn — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 15:30:00 +0000

A few months ago I posted a review of One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp. I’ve been counting gifts ever since. I’ve found it’s impossible to be grouchy and grateful at the same time so gift counting is something I wanted to be intentional about in 2012.

In December, I wrote about Joy. Joy in suffering. Joy in the Moment. Our real reason for Joy.

So imagine my Joy when I discovered the Joy Dare for 2012. An opportunity to count 1000 gifts in 2012, along with thousands of others, and rediscover Joy all year long.

If you look at the top of this page, you’ll see a “One Thousand Gifts” tab. You can click there to see my one thousand gifts in 2012. Ann’s made it as easy as imaginable with a calendar and prompts for every day.

I’ll also be tweeting (@LynnHBlackburn) my gifts (#1KGiftsDare) several times a week.

Won’t you join me in intentional joy and thankfulness this year?

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Joy – What Christmas is All About

Lynn Blackburn — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 16:00:00 +0000

Merry Christmas!

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Joy – In Suffering

Lynn Blackburn — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 16:00:00 +0000

It’s something we struggle with—this
whole concept of suffering. We have an ingrained worldview that
suggests suffering is only “fair” if it’s deserved. When we know
our desire is to serve God and we are still clobbered by life, we
wrestle with “why me” and “this isn’t fair” thoughts.

These are the time when I have often
found the lives of Paul and Peter to be a source of comfort. These
men served God and on a regular basis took a beating for it.

But never, before this year, have I
ever realized that there’s someone else who we know—know it from
the very mouth of an angel—was favored by God and from the moment
of that proclamation—suffered.

Mary.

Think about her for a moment. A young
virgin with life cruising along as planned. Getting ready to marry a
great guy. Then an angel shows up and says “God thinks you’re
awesome and He’s going to give you a remarkable gift. You get to be
the mother of the Christ.”

What the angel didn’t say? “Oh, by the
way, you’ll live the rest of your life under a cloud of scandal. And
you’ll have to flee the country in a few months. When He grows up,
He’ll traipse all over the country doing miracles. And people will
talk. Oh yes, they will talk.

But none of that will compare to what’s
coming. There will be a day when you will watch Him beaten to a
bloody pulp, groan under the weight of a cross, hang from that cross,
and eventually, breathe what everyone will believe is His last
breath.”

We don’t know how much Mary understood.
We know that from day one, she’d been pondering everything. The
angels, the shepherds, the star, the wise men. We know she’d been
warned, when He was only a few days old, that a sword would pierce
her soul. You can bet she never forgot those words.

We know from the very beginning of His
public ministry that she knew He could perform miracles.

But we don’t know how she coped. Did
she live all of His thirty-three years wondering when it would
happen? Was she ever able to look at Him—tiny baby nestled against
her, chubby toddler wrestling with His brothers, gangly teen helping
Joseph craft a table—and enjoy being His mom without wondering how
it would all end?

Did she know that the end would be the
beginning?

When she watched Him hanging there,
even if she knew He would return in three days, would it have
mattered? Would it have lessened the agony? Would if have prevented
the tears?

I don’t think so. You won’t find this
spelled out in Scripture, but my mother’s heart tells me that on the
day He died, no one hurt the way she did.

Knowing the rest of the story, we can
say it was worth it. Mary undoubtedly would agree.

But in the moment, Mary suffered.

I wish the Bible gave a us picture of
the reunion. The joy on Mary’s face when she saw her resurrected son,
her resurrected Savior. I’m sure her tears dripped onto His
nail-scarred hands. Surely He held her close. Thanked her for being a
great mom. Assured her that it had all been part of God’s plan.

Can you see it?

He’d like to do that for us as well.

When life is hard. When the loneliness
is overwhelming. When the pain won’t go away. When it’s all over.
When nothing will ever be the same.

He is.

He knows.

His sacrifice makes Joy possible.
Continuous Joy. Even in suffering. Not because we think pain is fun.
But because we know there’s a purpose. There’s a plan.

There’s a future.

He will wipe away every tear from their
eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning,
nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.
Revelation 21:4 (ESV)

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Joy – Bigger than our whole world

Lynn Blackburn — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 20:00:00 +0000

As I’ve been mulling over the idea of how big God is and the miracle it is that He became flesh, I’ve also been thinking about how often God does things in ways that are both unexpected and incomprehensible.

I’m wondering how often I don’t see God’s hand because what’s happening doesn’t make sense to me.

I’m wondering how much Joy I miss out on because instead of resting in His plan, I’m arguing with Him about His methods or pointing out to Him that what He’s doing doesn’t seem like a good idea.

I could go on and on about it, but Christmas is ten days away and my guess is you don’t have time for me to go on and on!

So instead I thought I’d leave you with one of my favorite passages from The Last Battle.

I love The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. (Please don’t ask how many times I’ve read them – the answer is, “I have no idea and if we don’t quit talking about it I’m going to have to start reading them again!”)

At this point in the story, the characters have been fighting all around a small stable and are now inside.

Ponder this, and find the Joy!

“It seems, then,” said Tirian, smiling himself, “that the Stable seen from within and the Stable seen from without are two different places.”

“Yes,” said the Lord Digory. “Its inside is bigger than its outside.”

“Yes,” said Queen Lucy. “In our world too, a Stable once had something inside it that was bigger than our whole world.”

C.S. Lewis ~ The Last Battle

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Unlimited Joy

Lynn Blackburn — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 17:22:00 +0000

As my daughter opened birthday gifts
several months ago, a sheet of paper fluttered on the edge of my
sight. All I registered was that there were at least twelve steps and
for a fleeting moment, I questioned my sister’s sanity. What was she
thinking? Why would she give Emma a gift that would be so complicated
to use? I was confused because I know that Jennifer is a thoughtful gift giver and would never give Emma something that would
only frustrate her.

Before I could investigate the
instruction sheet further, Hetti the Hippo exploded into our living
room. Squeals of delight pierced the air as the pop up tent filled
the entire open space. Within seconds, the six foot long hippo was
filled with laughing children.

And then it hit me. The instructions
weren’t for getting the tent open.

They were for cramming it back into the
box.

Ten months later, that crazy hippo is
still living large in Emma’s room.
Even when we moved, we didn’t bother trying to fold her up. (That instruction sheet is long gone!)

I was thinking about this the other day
as I tried—and failed—to get my mind around the idea of God
becoming man. Of the Word made flesh.

Of infinity squeezed into
infancy.

I can’t comprehend how He did it.

It was way more complicated than
getting dear ol’ Hetti back in her box.

No engineer, no physicist, no
biologist, no chemist, no mathematician—no human could have ever
figured it out.

It was a God-sized job.

It required a God-sized idea.

But who could have imagined that a six
pound baby boy could contain—could be—a God-sized miracle.

For thirty-three years, Jesus squished
Himself into humanity.

And after He accomplished what He came
to do, He exploded from His box.

Two thousand years later, He’s still
living large in the heavens.

He was. He is. He always will be.

So as we focus on the babe in a manger,
let’s be sure we don’t try to cram God into a box. He’s not that kind
of God.

He’s the kind of God who limited
Himself so that we could be filled with unlimited Joy.

Psalm 92:4-5 ~ For you, O LORD, have
made me glad by your work; at the work of your hands I sing for joy.
How great are your works, O LORD! Your thoughts are very deep. (ESV)

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Joy – In the Moment

Lynn Blackburn — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 23:57:00 +0000

I’m a wife, mother, and writer. I’m a
daughter, sister, and friend. I’m a reader, knitter, and scrapbooker.
I’m a cook, maid, and seamstress. I’m an engineer, manager, and
bookkeeper.

With all that stuff going on, you’d
think I’d be fulfilled.

Nope. Not even close. More often than
not, I feel anxious. Desperate. Inadequate.

My task-oriented nature struggles to
stay in the moment. To focus my energy on one thing, without mentally
scrambling to determine the most efficient way to check off something
else at the same time.

But by refusing to do one thing at a
time, I’m not doing any one thing well.

And I’m robbing myself of so much joy.

Jim Elliot is quoted as saying,
“Wherever you are, be all there.” I love that. I want that to
characterize my life. I think it’s another key to rediscovering joy.

Because something tells me that when
Jesus took on humanity, He was an “all there” kind of guy. Would
you care to guess what makes me think that?

Jesus spent nine months in a womb.

NINE MONTHS.

Have you ever thought of the challenge
that must have been? To go from omnipresence to embryo. To grow
inside a body You created.

But He did it. He was all there. All
God. All man. All at the same time. All miraculously contained inside
Mary’s swelling body. The Word that spoke the world into existence
limited Himself to baby babble. The hands that carved out oceans and
piled high mountains were content to bang on a pot with a wooden
spoon.

Wherever He was, He was all there.

And because He became Immanuel, God
with us, we have Joy. True Joy. Not fleeting happiness. Not momentary
pleasure.

Eternal Joy.

So as I stand in football field length
store lines or sit in gridlocked mall traffic, instead of chafing at
the limitations, I’m trying to practice being all there.

I’m not always successful, but when I
am, I’m discovering there’s so much Joy to be found in every moment.

So what about you? Do you feel up to a
Christmas challenge?

This weekend, join me. Wherever you are, be all
there. Wrapping presents? Be all there. At a party? Be all there. At
a Christmas program when you still have Christmas baking, shopping,
cleaning, and wrapping to do? Be all there.

I think you’ll find Joy there.

And when
you do, please come back and tell us about it!

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Rediscover Joy

Lynn Blackburn — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 16:00:00 +0000

I used to love this time of year.

Before I grew up.

Before I discovered that buying
Christmas presents on a budget is hard work.

Before I longed to be in two places at
once.

Before I spent hours cleaning,
preparing, shopping, wrapping.

Before I realized that all those
decorations would have to be taken down in a few weeks . . . by
me.

Before I had somewhere to be fifteen
out of twenty-five nights.

Before Christmas became synonymous with
exhaustion.

Because before . . . I would fly
through the door and run to the tree. Had mom wrapped more while I
was at school? Was there another gift for me?

Before . . . I would rearrange the
gifts, shaking, weighing, trying to guess. Never peeking, because the
anticipation was almost as much fun as whatever delight lay hidden
beneath the wrapping.

Before . . . I would huddle with my
sister as we planned Christmas morning. When would we get up? Would
she promise to wake me if she woke up first?

Before . . . I would go to sleep
listening to the twenty-four hours of Christmas music (that started
on Christmas Eve instead of the day after Thanksgiving).

Before . . . the day was filled with
gifts—given & received, family, food, fun.

Before . . . Christmas was synonymous
with joy.

This year, I’m making an effort to
re-discover the joy. My calendar isn’t quite as crowded as it has
been in year’s past, and I’m relieved. My to-do list—well, it’s
insane. But I’m focusing on doing the things that need to be done and
leaving off the stuff that can wait.

I’ve cranked up the music, downloaded a
new album (Michael Bublé!), bought a few presents, and decorated the
tree. At night, I’m taking a few moments to sit in the flickering
light of candles and remember . . . remember what it was like . . . before the first Christmas.

Before . . . the sounds of angels in
perpetual worship.
Before . . . perfect harmony with God
the Father and God the Spirit.
Before . . . peace, joy, comfort.
Before . . . honor, reverence.
Before . . . glory.

But then He came.

To the sound of cattle, sheep, and
donkeys
To a people in continual tension with
their Roman rulers and religious leaders.
To cold, wet, hunger, pain.
To anger, gossip, slander, humiliation,
misunderstanding.

To exhaustion.

To death.

As a child, I knew the real meaning of
Christmas. I knew there was a baby. I knew we exchanged gifts to
commemorate the Ultimate gift.
But my young mind was full of Sear’s
Wish Books and shiny packages.

I didn’t dwell on the miracle.

But for my slightly more grown up mind,
I think the secret to rediscovering the joy is to rediscover the
miracle.

Christmas was
always about the gifts. It still is. But the Gift that brings joy
these days isn’t one that sits under the tree wrapped in shiny paper.

It’s the One that lay in a feeding
trough wrapped in rags.

Immanuel –
God with us. Isaiah 7:9 ~ Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. (ESV)

Join me this month
as we rediscover the joy of the season.

****

The winner of last week’s giveaway is….Vicki! Congratulations! Email me at lynnhblackburn@gmail.com with your contact information and the fine folks at Baker will mail My Favorite Bible to you! Thanks to everyone who participated!

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