Surprised by Joy

 



“You have to watch this.  You will love it.”


And I did.


Surprised by Oxford is a film based on the memoirs of Carolyn Weber.  


Without giving much away (because you should really see this!), it’s a word play on Surprised by Joy, by C S Lewis.


Lewis goes into great depth as he explains his perception and definition of joy, but I want to focus on just one line. 


“ I doubt whether anyone who has tasted it would ever, if both were in his power, exchange it for all the pleasures in the world. But then Joy is never in our power and pleasure often is.” (Surprised by Joy: The Shape of my Early Life, 19.)


We are the keepers of our joy, but not the creators.  


It can’t be forced, though we can manipulate and create circumstances that increase its likelihood.  


So today I was watching for those moments. 


And surprised multiple times.


In the sensation of a 2 year old’s chubby fist curling around a strand of my hair as her warm forehead presses into my neck and she falls asleep to the gentle sway of my body. 


In the warmth of the autumn sunshine radiating against my cheek and pulling me into prayer with Heaven.


In the reading of words of gratitude that take me back to multiple moments of joy spent in the early hours of hundreds of days teaching teens around my table.


In Genesis we find these words, “59And the LORD said, Blessed is he through whose seed Messiah shall come; for he saith, I am Messiah, the King of Zion, the Rock of Heaven, which is broad as eternity; and whoso cometh in at the gate and climbeth up by me shall never fall.

60Wherefore, blessed are they of whom I have spoken, for they shall come forth with songs of everlasting joy.”


These bits and moments of joy- they build a longing for eternity within us.  


And through our Savior we can truly have the songs of everlasting joy.


So perhaps they shouldn’t surprise me, as opportunities are always there.


God literally plants innumerable intersections for us to encounter Him all around us.


They are fine tuned for us individually, but even when we are looking they will still come as a surprise.  


And we can all be surprised by joy. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Trust

Image
  As I was riding a bike down the former train route along the Idaho-Montana border, I had hours to quietly reflect and appreciate the lush mountain landscape extending around me as far as I could see.   I was in a prayerful state, open to the promptings of the Spirit.   At one point I came to the edge of a meadow and needed to sit and rest for a bit.   There I found a lovely rustic bench made from a tree right there in the forest.  And it occurred to me how often the things we need are right there in our lives around us. The people, the resources, our talents and gifts. Psalm 34:8 lovingly promises “O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him”. He will provide.   And as we learn to recognize that help, we will become more grateful and happy. 
Read more

Pancake Stirrers

Image
 Have you ever found yourself super upset over a rather simple offense? Generally when that happens it is actually due to much more than that incident.   It is likely just that incident that was the last straw, or used up your final bit of patience. Yesterday I had a student come to my room absolutely outraged.   She has a significant trauma history and so has learned to fight at all costs. Her counselors and our staff are working to help her build some new, more effective ways of dealing with frustration and confrontation. In this instance her role in her culinary arts class was to stir the pancake batter.   Only someone else did and her immediate reaction was to want to fight her. She knew that wasn’t appropriate so walked out and came to my room. After she had vented and calmed down, we talked through it.   Humor is a very effective tool for her so after gauging her body language I simply asked, “Are you going to let your whole day be ruined because someone else stirred the pancakes
Read more

Entitlement

Image
  As we stopped to get family donuts this morning, the sign in the restroom caught my eye. “Please be considerate of others and clean up any messes you may have left.” It reminded me of a sharp contrast I observed several years ago.  As a young class visited the restroom, a student balled up their paper towel and attempted to toss it into the trash can from across the room. He missed and went over to pick up the paper. His teacher immediately stopped him and commented, “Oh you don’t need to pick that up, that’s what we have janitors for.” What a missed opportunity. The child had naturally felt responsibility for his own actions and had tried to pick up his mess. Yet instead of helping cement that foundation of personal accountability, the teacher had reinforced entitlement and laziness. This same attitude is increasingly prevalent in society today.   It sounds like “Why should I have to?”, “Someone else will do it” or “It’s not my job”. Elder Dallin H Oaks stated, “The values of the wo
Read more