My Social Media-less Life

It took me much longer to find the right picture than I thought it would, but I finally did. With the topic of today’s Bloganuary prompt, Joy being prominent makes the most sense.

Bloganuary Writing Prompt:
What brings you joy in life?

As with most of these prompts so far, this one is SUPER vague, so there’s a lot that could fall under “joy”. As Nathan W. Pyle, the Strange Planet Guy, so succinctly put it once, “I am a beacon of joy.”

So I don’t always think about what brings ME joy in life since I feel like I live at a level of… happiness?… that most people have to work to get to. Like, whatever the baseline that most people feel like they live at, I’m a few notches of happiness above that. I am literally Joy from Inside Out.

And I suppose we could call this thing “joy”, but for me joy and happiness were always two different things. And they should be two different things, but society in general tends to make them interchangeable ideas and I guess if you don’t really have Jesus, they’re going to seem like they’re the same thing.

However…

Happiness is circumstantial. Happiness is situational. It doesn’t last forever. When I talk to my friends about my new car, I get VERY HAPPY. But that’s not necessarily joy. Once the moment passes, so does the happiness… for the most part. 😛

Joy goes beyond the situation and the circumstances. Joy can BE happiness, but happiness is not joy. Joy transcends what surrounds the person. Joy is deeper than just what’s happening around you. Joy is within you.

So to ask what brings me joy in life the only obvious answer can be Jesus.

Without Jesus I don’t think one can ever really experience true joy. That’s not to say that being made in the image of God, humans can’t find some small joy in their lives. I mean, I DID just buy my dream car and it has brought me a LOT of joy over the past five days. But it’s nothing compared to the joy that really knowing Jesus and having a personal relationship with God the Father through His Son has brought me.

And really the “joy” I’ve gotten from the car is just the joy that the Lord has been good to me and blessed me with such an amazing job to be able to afford a new car… so it’s not even the car bringing me the joy so much as it is the Lord and His goodness.

I never really know what I’m going to write when I start these blogs, so this was a lot of left turns even I wasn’t expecting.

Either way, I hope this was helpful to you today… and even if it wasn’t, I hope it was fun to read. 🙂