Joy

Author: Pastor Dinah
January 24, 2024

The topic for this week in the Love Your Actual Neighbor series is JOY. 
Joy is the first key ingredient in good neighboring.
Neighboring is about living out our faith exactly where we are planted and it involves joy, relationship, and abundance.
I think it's really important to make a distinction between joy and happiness.
Happiness is self-focused. That doesn't make it bad, but it's self-focused. Happiness describes some form of good fortune that we receive, like money or health. It is related to pleasure.
It's centered on what is immediately around us in the moment.
Joy is not a beginner's virtue. 
The source of JOY is God. 
Joy is found in God and is accompanied by wisdom. The opposite of joy is not sadness, but fear. Joy is a swirling of deep spiritual connection, pleasure, and gratitude.
Gratitude leads to future joy, and then that joy leads to more gratitude, then gratitude and joy kind of swirl together. While experiencing joy, we don't lose ourselves.
We become more truly ourselves when we experience joy, and I believe that to be true. Joy comes when you know that you are loved. And when you know that you have a place in the community.

Learn more about the Neighboring Movement.

Neighboring Movement

 

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