31 Days | Day 22 {FMF}~

It’s FMF time! Today’s prompt: JOY.

A friend of mine once wrote on her blog:

Joy is God in the marrow of our bones. {Eugenia Price}

That quote has stuck with me, years later.

Have you ever found yourself in the most mundane of moments, yet feeling unabashed joy in the midst of them?

Even when life isn’t exactly doing you any favors. Or rogue waves come at you from left field.

When circumstances don’t make you feel quite joyful, yet you still find joy? That’s not us. That’s God. 

Joy isn’t dependent on what we’re doing, or what’s going on in our lives. Though we sometimes (often for me) feel like our joy is contingent on life working out for us, joy is so much more than that.

Joy is God in us. Joy is God– in the midst of the mundane, of the hellish moments, of the life screwups and sadness– still working, still breathing Himself into our lungs.

Joy is God in every fiber of being, making life worth celebrating even when circumstances aren’t. 

(technically my timer went off right about here, but I have a story to add):

—

I worked in my school’s campus ministry office my junior year as an intern. We’d gone through some tough times the first semester of the year- and yet, you’d never know it when walking into the office. There was just an air about all of us interns and campus ministers- playing ball in the office, laughing loudly, talking giddily and excitingly about life, bouncing around like we were hyped up on caffeine– coming into our office in those days felt like joy, even when we probably could have all been sulking and sad about circumstances on our campus at the time. We went into campus ministry meetings laughing and goofy. (and I am not a goofy person, personality-wise).

It’s hard to describe. There was just something in the air– something that made us all just so happy when being with each other (and the campus ministers) in our office.

Our woman’s campus minister, my mentor Caroline, called it simply: The joy of the Lord. 

We’d all just been struck by it. There was this insurmountable joy about us– we could not be shaken by what life had to offer us.

We were living like we had the joy of the Lord deep within us–in the marrow of our bones.

Simple as that. We lived the joy of the Lord, and it’s my goal to get back to that place where I feel like the joy of the Lord is less about my circumstances, and more about joy being in me, straight from God.

Because when you live life like the joy of the Lord is straight up in you, it shows. 

Instead, You direct me on the path that leads to a beautiful life.
    As I walk with You, the pleasures are never-ending,
    and I know true joy and contentment. – Psalm 16:11 (The Voice)

Joy-Rend Collective (this song is so fun!)

31 Days | Day 20 {Why I Write}

Today, I’m going off the grid and not doing the prompt. Instead, I’m writing about an important topic: writing.

Seems a bit counter-intuitive, but ehh.

Today apparently is National Day of Writing in the US. It’s probably one of those holidays that someone came up with and blew up thanks to social media,   but ah well. Writing is important, nonetheless. 

My #WhyIWrite Tweets

Twitter has the hastag #WhyIWrite going, and lots of people have shared on it. Some peoples’ answers were witty and funny, some were poignant and emotional and soul-bearing.

Which is basically what writing is to me: baring my soul. 

I write to give a voice to the stories I need to hear.

I write so that I feel less alone– and hopefully, others feel less alone by reading what I’ve written.

I write because it gives my soul room to breathe- If I left my thoughts and my stories in my head, I would be swallowed whole by them.

I write about what stories or notions I can’t get out of my head.

Or something I need to get off my chest- a problem, a hurt, a fear.

I write because some things I struggle to say out loud. Writing gives me clarity. It provides me time to think my thoughts and feelings through before blurting them out.

I write because sometimes things don’t need to be left unsaid. Writing gives me an outlet to say what scares me to death.

I write when something strikes me- something that makes me think a new way, or when something grips at my heart.

I write to make sense of what my heart feels.

I also write because I believe there is power in stories. Mine, yours, others. Fiction and non-fiction.

I’ve always had stories running through my head. I remember making storybooks in 2nd grade (and I bet my nana still has some of them). I’ve always loved writing stories, both ones I’ve made up, and the stories in my own life. The stories of my own life- the funny, happy ones and the tragic ones- they have shaped me, and it’s important to me to give them a voice. I have stories I’ve made up to get out of my own story at times; or, I’ve used writing to try to rewrite my own stories, to give them a different ending. Writing has always been something I’ve been relatively ‘good’ at; it’s always been my favorite way to express myself. Some people use art to articulate their emotions; some music, others theatre. For me, it’s always been writing, it’s always been storytelling.

Stories have the power to shape us, change us, move us, save us. Words have more power than we give them credit for. 

Words, stories, books… they’ve saved my life.

They’ve sent me on a roller coaster of emotions: happy, sad, angry, shocked. They’ve left me speechless, or they never let me stop talking. They have made me laugh on one page, sob on the next; it’s amazing what the power of a good story can awaken in us.

Stories have made me feel normal, less alone in my journey. And by writing, I hope I can do that, too. I hope the stories I write help people like words have always helped me. 

I love a good story. 

Which is why i write, most of all, I think– because good stories deserve to be told. I write to tell good stories- and to give my stories a voice. Hopefully a voice someone else needs to hear.

This quote has been the tagline to my blog for many years, and it will always ring true to me:

By writing, you are saying to God, ‘I agree with you, you gave me a voice, and the gift was not in vain’. ~Donald Miller

May the gifts of our writing never be in vain.

31 Days | Day 18 {Worth}

Day 18 prompt: Worth.

GO.

I am an extremely sentimental person. I think it goes hand-in-hand with being emotional- I get attached to certain things like I get attached to people. 

I’ve kept a keepsake box for many years; it has notes, cards, letter, ticket stubs, pictures, random knick knacks… everything in their has some sentimental value for me. I go through it when I’m having a rough time. I re-read the notes, laugh at the pictures, smile at the random things I’ve kept over the years.

They may not be worth a lot monetarily, but they have infinite worth to me and my heart. My keepsake box would be the first thing I grab (besides my pets!) if there was an emergency of any kind in my house.

I am a lover of my stuff– my sentimental stuff, my pretty stuff, my useful or not-so useful stuff. Cheap or expensive, old or new, I am a collector of things that make me smile, or things I find pretty and nice and sentimental. Memory-provoking or simply joy inducing, I enjoy my things.

While I know these things won’t mean much when Kingdom come, these ‘things’ mean a lot to me now. 

While we store up our treasures for heaven, I think it’s okay to put some worth in the things that make our souls happy here. We aren’t supposed to wait on heaven to truly live; and sometimes, ‘living’ means putting some worth in the things we love here on earth. 

While stuff may simply be stuff, our stuff still has worth. 

END.

*this post was inspired by an article Sarah Bessey wrote over at The Art of Simple… it kinda came at a perfect time for me. Click here to read on!

From the article:

“I believe there is room in our homes – and in our lives – for more than just the useful or functional; there is room for the lovely, the memory-filled, the beautiful, the sacred, the just-because-I-love-it-still stuff.”

just because you need more Jon Foreman in your life… and because these lyrics just make my heart happy.