when trouble comes...

I have sat down here so many times to start a post about ordering lighting, to record the happenings of our days.  But, life keeps calling me away...a house project that needs researched...a house fixture that just arrived...sharing the leftover ice cream with my small man on a quiet Saturday afternoon...

resting with little one on the couch...

my love turning my attention to the setting sun, which needs to be enjoyed on a porch swing, sitting long enough to watch the clouds pass us by, long enough to notice the brilliant orange and pinks fade into deep blues, long enough to wonder at the 2 of us, here, in the corn fields of Indiana, of all places...loving this little life of ours, as unpredictable as it may seem at times, long enough to think about this verse again.


Those who look to Him are radiant with joy.
psalm 34.5


Scrap lighting post.  Let's discuss joy.  This verse keeps coming to mind.  There's just stuff that tends to get me down.  You know what I mean.  Life spins beyond our control and we can't keep up or always be in the right frame of mind to take it graciously.  Situations we find ourselves in may ask to rob us of our joy.  Let's be real.  Sometimes they can just suck the life right out of you.  So, where is this ever-flowing, ever-freeing, abundant well of joy that people have in the midst of deep pain, reoccurring disappointments?    


When James says...
Dear brothers and sisters, 
whenever trouble comes your way, 
let it be an opportunity for JOY!
james 1.2


I have read that verse over and over, thinking it must be a typo.  
Joy?!?  Really?
This time last year I came across this verse as I was mentally preparing to have my thyroid removed.  A surgery I had sought to avoid, but was inevitable.  With a family I love dearly, laying down on that operating room table of uncertainty took courage I didn't know I had.  I had a choice to make.  Let my fears overwhelm or let it be an opportunity for joy.  


When I got the call a few days later that there were two parts that showed cancerous, I again had a choice to make.  Worry, or prayer.  Philippians 4.6-7 came to life in those weeks.  (One of those choices actually leads to peace!)


Those are big things.  Some of the biggest stuff we have had to face.  But, it's the little things that get me.  It's the every day choice before my feet touch the ground of who or what is going to dominate my thoughts today.  Whether I will let the worries and cares of this world weigh me down, or open wide the hand of surrender, eyes fixed on Him, strengthened with joy.  


The joy of the Lord is my strength.  
Nehemiah 8.10
Indeed, it is!  He's got plenty of it.
Sometimes we just need called away to remember that.  To look to Him.  
To let the wonder of it all turn to joy.

And for those of you who would have rather a post about lighting, sorry.  

I'll get to that soon :)

I just had some thoughts spinning around in my head...