Joy is not something we wait for. It is not a product of comfort, success, or the agreement of others. It arises when we are willing to face life without needing it to be different. Circumstances shift. People disappoint. Loss comes. Still, there is something within us that does not waver. Joy is primarily a discovery of the soul, when God makes known God’s presence, where there are no words, no outward song, only the Divine Movement. That stillness, that Divine Movement, is the source of our joy. It is not emotional excitement. It is not positive thinking. It is not something we manufacture. It comes uninvited, in silence, when we have nothing left to hold onto but the Presence itself. That joy does not protect us from pain, but it remains. It stays. It sustains. And it teaches us to trust what does not change.
May the joy that arises from the Divine Movement within
sustain us beyond all words, all conditions, and all fear.
(inspired by Howard Thurman, Deep Is the Hunger; Henri J. M. Nouwen, Following Jesus)
Bless you, dear Robert. Just what I needed !