Third Week of Advent - JOY! Vol. 1 Ch 3

Joy.
This week we celebrate the Christmas Advent (the preparations for Jesus' birth celebration) with JOY!

I would love to say that I am in the midst of giggles and laughter right now. But, I am not.
I am dealing with some pretty tough stuff. You know that whole nerve/spinal chord/don't ever want to have one of those kind of surgeries, surgery.

The Neuro Surgeon will be talking to me about options on January 13. I am sitting at my desk right now in my sublime ergonomic chair (a 60th Bday gift) contemplating the ramifications of surgery.
In my morning pages this morning, I cried out to the God most High. HELP!

Do you do that?
I do!

Yesterday, I refused to let the back get the better of me. I had given in to staying home from church probably 4 times in the last three months. I decided that Satan would not win this one.

Do you do that? Bluster and blow at Satan?
I do!

The sermon was excellent and right on point for me in my situation. Of course it was, I nearly didn't go. LOL! and that?

Do you do that?
Find out that the message on Sunday morning was just what you needed to hear when you have struggled so  hard to get there.
I do!

We are having a nice little study on Advent in between the morning service and the late service at our church. It too was right on point. A complete opportunity to ask for prayer, and a blessing from the leader in her preparations. It was a wonderful community time. And I would have missed it, had I stayed home.
But, I didn't stay home. I got up, I forged forward, I was in quite a bit of pain. And I was blessed.

Do you have that happen?
I do!

But does any of this have to do with Advent Season JOY? Well, not really. Yes, I went to church, I was blessed, and it was a wonderful blessing. But it still had nothing to do with the Advent JOY.

Advent JOY is something other than.

You might already know that joy has absolutely nothing to do with happiness. Joy has absolutely nothing to do with good times.  And this Advent JOY doesn't even depend on going to church, or meeting in community. Not that all of these are not needed and wonderful.

Advent JOY is something other than.

Advent JOY is the joy that we have every moment of every day after entering relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

It is the depths of the ocean joy. Not the emotional ups and downs of the ocean waves happiness.

Advent JOY takes us to a place that is deeper and more powerful than any other place. It links right in there with Resurrection JOY.  This Christmas birth celebration is the first step on earth of the promise given to the broken world after Sin entered and removed us from relationship with God. Removed us from entering His presence.

Yes, we can exist apart from this Advent JOY. But it is existence. We can have fun, enjoy the holiday spirit, and even get a lot of happiness from our family, our friends, our community. But the waves we ride are up and down. Those are the happiness waves that can send us plummeting after the friends go home, the relatives leave for other places near and far, and the 'crummy of life' starts ebbing in. A time of depending on circumstances or people is a life of existing, not fulfillment living.

You, like me, probably have experienced or known a loved one to experience the broken of life. The broken marriages, broken dreams, broken promises, broken lives.

When the 'crummy of life' ebbs in, I know it is possible to go deep down on my emotional see saw. Do you?

But I learned a long time ago about Advent JOY. And it is not only celebrated in the advent season. I can and do celebrate it every time I place my mind where it needs to be. On Jesus.

Advent JOY is the JOY that comes from knowing that Jesus Christ left heaven, was sent by His Father to enter this earthly domain. Was sent and carried on wings of LOVE. He is God Incarnate.

This LOVE came down to a tiny manger, in a humble stable with a father and a mother (like me, like you) that really didn't know what they were doing. They simply trusted the mystifying angels that came to them and spoke words of things that were to come from their lives.

Mary was a teenager, Joseph a very young man. They were struggling with shame from Mary's pregnancy. They were struggling with riding a donkey into a town filled to the brim and with no space to house them. They were trying to figure out how to have a baby in the midst of this chaos. But their JOY, their ADVENT JOY  bolstered them into the glory they were a part of.

Their Advent JOY prepared them to meet the baby, the son of Mary, the adopted son of Joseph and the son of God. An intimate gift to us for opportunity to re-enter relationship through this baby, born innocent, without sin because His father was God, not Joseph.

And that Advent JOY is the JOY that I pray for you to enter. The JOY that is completely void of ups and downs. The JOY that resembles the ocean depths in its calmness. The JOY that is available to us all the time.

May this season of Advent JOY find you basking in His Glory, in His Gift and in His Peace, Joy, Love and forgiveness. I know that the fear that comes with a nerve/spine surgery problem is great, but not greater than this ADVENT JOY! So today I will enjoy working, walking, and talking, and loving my man. But I will CELEBRATE that Jesus came as a baby, wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger.

Because He IS the I AM, i am
robyn rochelle cox

Blessings on your day from
Robyn Rochelle & Biff Cox
RR&BC, LLC©

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