What Simple Things in Life Bring You Great Joy?

3 Things that Bring My Joy

I read a writing prompt: write about three things that bring you the most joy.

Challenge accepted.

Three simple things that bring me the most joy is gathering with my church family, laughing with my family, and reading my Bible.

Reading my Bible brings me joy because it fills my mind and moves my heart toward the goodness of God in Christ. God is infinitely good to me in Christ. Infinitely. That word is not an understatement. It is the most accurate word I could find to quantify his goodness. I easily forget this goodness. I minimize it. Marginalize it. Belittle it. Reading God's Word and thinking about the glories of Jesus fill my mind and move my heart and life in the right direction. God is the source of joy. The means of joy. The goal of joy. And he infallibly, inerrantly, and unmistakingly speaks to me when I read his book. It is a joy that I live on the other side of the printing press and now the technological revolution such that I have the Bible with me everywhere I go. This abundance exposes my indolence. I need to read. I get to read. I get to hear his voice.

Laughing with my family is sheer delight. My kids are all fun and funny in unique and overlapping ways. I love tickling them. I love their jokes and their perspective. My wife and I have changed each other in funny and quirky ways. I guess that's true of all married couples. Or all people since everyone changes and is unique in every season of their lives. But my wife knows how to needle me, continue a joke with me, and tolerate my attempts at getting under her skin. I love laughing with my family. This includes my parents, siblings, cousins, and nephews and nieces. When we spend time together and laugh at each other, laugh at ourselves, and laugh together I want to bottle up the moment and keep it. I know I can't and that's God's design. He calls me to enjoy them, enjoy the laugh, and enjoy him in that moment then meet him in the next moment.

A third simple thing that brings me great joy is gathering with my church family on the Lord's Day. Their singing God's grace and truth while looking to God or each other replenishes my soul. Just yesterday we sang the line, "we believe in the resurrection when Jesus comes again for we believe in the name of Jesus." I looked around at a church family made up of members weighed down by spiritual, mental, emotional, physical, relational, and societal brokenness. They will rise from the dead. We will rise. And we will see Jesus. The sin and brokenness of the past will only be a memory. Not a current burden. Not something to carry with others. Not a fear of what is inevitably coming. A memory. A bundle of memories seen from the perspective of being Christ's now resurrected people. And all of those tears and pains and shames will be a memory. Man, singing that while looking at my people, seeing my parents and my kids, seeing the grieving and depressed and discouraged loads me up with deep and hopeful joy. And it's simple. We gather. We sing. We greet. We listen. We pray. We eat. We gather again to sing and pray and listen and eat. Then we visit with each other. Then I go to my house and review the day with a handful of dearly loved saints. It is a day of many emotions. A day where the grace of joy flows to me and those I love most.