It’s FMF time! Today’s prompt: JOY.

A friend of mine once wrote on her blog:

Joy is God in the marrow of our bones. {Eugenia Price}

That quote has stuck with me, years later.

Have you ever found yourself in the most mundane of moments, yet feeling unabashed joy in the midst of them?

Even when life isn’t exactly doing you any favors. Or rogue waves come at you from left field.

When circumstances don’t make you feel quite joyful, yet you still find joy? That’s not us. That’s God. 

Joy isn’t dependent on what we’re doing, or what’s going on in our lives. Though we sometimes (often for me) feel like our joy is contingent on life working out for us, joy is so much more than that.

Joy is God in us. Joy is God– in the midst of the mundane, of the hellish moments, of the life screwups and sadness– still working, still breathing Himself into our lungs.

Joy is God in every fiber of being, making life worth celebrating even when circumstances aren’t. 

(technically my timer went off right about here, but I have a story to add):

—

I worked in my school’s campus ministry office my junior year as an intern. We’d gone through some tough times the first semester of the year- and yet, you’d never know it when walking into the office. There was just an air about all of us interns and campus ministers- playing ball in the office, laughing loudly, talking giddily and excitingly about life, bouncing around like we were hyped up on caffeine– coming into our office in those days felt like joy, even when we probably could have all been sulking and sad about circumstances on our campus at the time. We went into campus ministry meetings laughing and goofy. (and I am not a goofy person, personality-wise).

It’s hard to describe. There was just something in the air– something that made us all just so happy when being with each other (and the campus ministers) in our office.

Our woman’s campus minister, my mentor Caroline, called it simply: The joy of the Lord. 

We’d all just been struck by it. There was this insurmountable joy about us– we could not be shaken by what life had to offer us.

We were living like we had the joy of the Lord deep within us–in the marrow of our bones.

Simple as that. We lived the joy of the Lord, and it’s my goal to get back to that place where I feel like the joy of the Lord is less about my circumstances, and more about joy being in me, straight from God.

Because when you live life like the joy of the Lord is straight up in you, it shows. 

Instead, You direct me on the path that leads to a beautiful life.
    As I walk with You, the pleasures are never-ending,
    and I know true joy and contentment. – Psalm 16:11 (The Voice)

Joy-Rend Collective (this song is so fun!)