Do you know what brings you joy? I’m not talking about happiness, nor circumstantial satisfaction. Not affirmation or validation. I’m talking about Joy. As in: deep contentment, gratitude, delight, peace – regardless of circumstances, setbacks, or seasons. Most folks I know can’t really answer that question, and neither could I.

After selling the company I’d co-conceived, birthed, and scaled,I was ready for the Lord to show me what was next. Instead, He asked me “What Brings You Joy?” and I was stumped.

Eighteen months of unplanned sabbatical led me down forgotten paths, through difficult memories, and past a Kodak roll of images from childhood antics and pastimes.

I learned to recognize and change thought patterns that were keeping me from Joy. Turns out, once noble ideas like “responsibility” and “empathy for others” had become strongholds that had overtaken my ability to even know what I wanted or needed or felt or thought. Fears, insecurities, and codependence had crept in and were keeping me from being able to feel joy.

Let’s learn to recognize the negative thought patterns that keep most of us from understanding and experiencing the true, abundant Joy that our Good, Good Father has for us. We’ll identify them, understand why they aren’t serving us anymore, repent, and then begin to learn Jesus’ truth, that can lead us to a new level of trust and Joy under His covering.

We all have Faith. We have faith that the sun will come up tomorrow, That when we drop something, it will fall to the ground. That bad things will occasionally happen. That the magnolia tree we walk by on the sidewalk will smell delicious.

The book of Hebrews in the Bible defines Faith as confidence in what we hope for and assurance of what we do not see. Assurance. Some translations even say “evidence” of what we don’t see.

By that definition, it’s easy to see how we develop faith in gravity, the sun coming up, or relationships that disappoint us. We count on these things being absolutes, predictable, unchanging. But, how many of us operate with full Faith that we have a good, good Father? That God is who He says He is? That it’s His nature to be good? That He has a plan to prosper and provide for us? That we are who He says we are? That He gives us good gifts. That He is present with us in our trials.

Let’s explore together the ways that God has been good, faithful, trustworthy, kind, merciful, just, and loving in our own lives. We’ll look together for the evidence that produces Faith, and leads us to the lives He designed us to lead.

“How are you?” Said any random acquaintance you run into in the grocery store or the airport or at the soccer field.

“I’m good. Pretty good. Busy, but good.” We answer, nearly every time.

It’s like we know that “busy” subtracts from the good we are experiencing. And yet, even so, we wear “busy” like the ID badge needed for meaningful life.

We boast about how little sleep we got. How much we’ve been traveling. How late we worked. How many balls we are juggling. It seems, no matter the amount of time we have in a day, it’s never enough. Our to-do list expands to fill the time.

This is not how we were designed to live. We were designed to live in peace, love, joy, goodness, kindness, patience, meekness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22). We were designed to lie down by a green pasture and let the Good Shepherd care for us (Psalm 23). Those characteristics certainly aren’t correlated with busy-ness. So many of us can quote these truths from scripture, but most of us don’t live as if we believe they are meant for us, at least not in whatever “season of life” we are in.

So, what gives?

Let’s explore the things that are keeping us from rest. The fears, the responsibility we feel for everyone and everything, the strain and striving, and the affirmation and validation of others that hits us like dopamine. We’ll identify the thoughts that are keeping us from rest, and begin to discover that the time we needed to rest was there all along.