Break in the clouds: JOY

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We're just two teenage girls racing against the beat of the song and the fading evening. Racing toward a glimpse of His glory. Her old beat up jeep is grinding forward. We jumped in the car on a whim. We glimpsed the pinks and oranges of the fall sun setting out the window and we're racing to that crest at the top of our high school school.

David Crowder has just released a new album and that song is blaring through the speakers: He set me on fire. I am coming alive. With this breath in my lungs. I am coming undone. 

Window down. Hair blowing. Mouths grinning. Time ticking. Sun setting.

And we reach it. Just in time to see the brilliant colors lighting up the sky. And just in time to hear the climax of the song:

You are my joy. You are my joy. You are my joy. 

 God's creation and man's song joining together in perfect harmony to bring a glimpse of heaven to two teenage girls.

Then the sun finally sets ushering in the piercing dark blue night. The song finally finishes. She turns the key in the ignition and we head back home with hearts full of joy. 
- - - - - - 

 This week is the third week of advent- the week of JOY. Yet, it feels like I'm just grasping at thin air for threads of joy. I keep thinking, It's Christmas! This whole season is supposed to be filled with joy. 

 And then that memory came back today. Vivid and clear. Racing toward that setting sun. The song hitting at the perfect time.

The tears started falling fast. The words from Nehemiah 8:10 came quickly, "For the JOY of the Lord is my strength."

The Lord is my joy and strength. My joy is not my strength. Thank goodness. His joy is my strength. And oh, if He isn't an ocean of joy. Great tidal waves of joy. The wild-sun-setting-colors, view-from-a- mountain-top, flowers-bursting-forth-in-bloom kinda joy.

And oh, if He didn't bring that same glory to a teenage girl 2,000 years ago. I am sure she had to believe that the joy of the Lord was her strength. That is just what the Lord does. He brings His joy, his son Jesus, into our moments of darkness to give strength and light and life.

May your week be filled with this kind of joy.

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