Women's January Blog: Meeting Joy
It was Thursday. The sun rose, and I knew travel was scheduled. But there were things to get done before travel began—a list of “to-dos” and boxes to check “done.” Waking early to start, for me, is usually being on my computer.
What I enjoy is finding a comfortable space in my home, before going into one of the campus locations, to get cozy and look into the heart of questions that come over email or other things on my list to get done. There’s my quiet time too, which I love. That Thursday, I had time to settle and be present with the Lord.
I am thankful Thursday started with quiet time—cozy, warm, getting refreshed by His love for me. A part of that was one of my sweet friends sending a text with words that spoke kindness, stating she had been praying for a small group of us, washing us in His Word with 1 Thessalonians 3:12–13 (ESV):
“May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints.”
In receiving this and gathering His Word into my heart, I was filled with His message through my friend. It helped affirm His love for me and prepare the day set before me. With this Scripture, I reflected on how God’s invitation has beckoned me to search Him out, take in His Word with my eyes, and feel it in my heart. I so often, if not mostly, take His Word into my head. I spend time researching, wondering, discovering—and I love that. My heart is His, but I am also challenged to send His Word to my heart to feel it too. That Thursday, His Word went straight to my heart.
I know God sent these words that day to affirm my need to hear them, to prepare my heart for the weekly travel that was coming, and to sit in these words—His words—to let them penetrate continuously into my heart.
My weekly travel is taken to see my dad in a nearby city. My sweet hubby drives us, and the car ride for me is spent tidying up the workday and preparing to see my dad. He has a nice room at a memory care facility. In this place, there are days of joy and sorrow. There are times when the two meet. Amidst those moments, there is hand-holding, tears, and laughter.
We get to step into treasured spaces of my dad’s memory. Questions that he asks intentionally, but cannot remember the answer to, are each a new conversation for him. Sprinkled in are jokes that are met, in the same minute, with tears of a deep love of missing loved ones—mostly found in a longing love for my mom, who is with Jesus already. A quivering chin, words that won’t come out, and tear-filled eyes from the now tender heart of the man who is my dad.
We are usually on a scattered journey each week that is the same, yet new in the moment for him. It is amazing to listen to stories from the past—80 to 85 years prior—to a farm that he grew up on and knows so many details about. We meet joy in these moments, and I treasure them in my heart. At the age of 92, my dad’s joy also meets sorrow in the wake of these memories. I understand these moments are fleeting.
The tension of seeing my dad for who he was, who he is, where he will be in the future, and where he will eventually rest by my mom’s side and with the Lord is difficult and heart-wrenching, yet assuring. It’s where my joy meets sorrow, and sorrow meets joy. It’s in these trials where I (we) can take in 1 Thessalonians as it records the Word of the Lord:
“May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints.”
I sit today praying that I will meet this sorrow with His joy—that He makes me increase and continue to abound in love for my dad and others, just as He has given that love to me. What is God revealing here to me personally? He reveals that He is steadfast, certain, constant, forgiving, merciful, and covering us through Christ Jesus—all of us. I am thankful it’s not up to me, but that I (we) are covered by His love.
Ladies, I pray for you that you will feel His heart for you, be beckoned into His Word to know Him personally, and that both of these will help you walk in your day—sitting with Him in your quiet time, checking the to-do boxes off for the day, being a part of life with someone in a meaningful way, and when needed, meeting sorrow with all His joy given to us.
- Traci Hollingsworth