Advent Week 3: Joy
Author:
December 15, 2022
“JOY to the world, the Lord has come!”
Welcome to the third week of Advent! If you’re anything like me, this week you realized that Christmas is close. Like, really close. It probably sent you into a spiral of stress realizing that there is still so much to be done! Shopping, wrapping, baking, making the perfect memories. It’s a lot. So how can we find joy when it's the week before Christmas and unbelievably chaotic? Hint, it’s the answer you can always use confidently in Sunday School. JESUS!
A lot of us find ourselves right now in a bizarre combination of urgency to slow down and simply enjoy the season before it’s gone and feeling an even stronger sense of urgency to make sure everything that needs to happen, happens. Because of this, we can so easily find ourselves sinking into our circumstances, allowing them to steal the joy of the season. But the good news about Joy is that the source flows so much further beyond a season, a circumstance, or a moment. We can find joy at Christmas time because of one person and one person only.
We’ve all heard and been told that true joy differs from happiness because it is rooted in something deeper than a fleeting moment can offer. Joy outlasts circumstances and events in our lives, and when rooted in Jesus, will not waiver. In this third week of Advent, I am praying for a celebration of joy, because we have received the best news and the best gift anyone can receive.
Luke 2:10-11: But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.
The bible also describes the word joy as meaning “full” or “complete,” which creates such a rich context for us to look at the idea of joy within the Christmas story. Jesus came to create fullness, or a completeness for all the people.
So, during this next week, how can we find JOY in the season?
Slow down. I know there are a million things to do. I know. But finding a few moments to stop and truly feel the joy that we have because of Christ will bring us back into alignment with what this is all about.
Go out of your way to show someone a genuine act of love or kindness. When we’re truly living in the joy of Jesus and letting it permeate our lives, it has to come out! Show it off!
Let the little things go. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak, and with the long lines, traffic, and family arguments that can abound during this week, let’s work to let it go and let JOY lead out. Let us be so in tune with Christ and His overwhelming joy that we can let the little things go and truly be joyful.
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