I read an interesting metaphor for how we approach joy in general. The book that I've been reading mentions that in ancient Israel, the best source of water came from the springs. They called in living water because it flowed continuously. Another source of water was from man-made cisterns (large pits dug into rocks that collected rainwater.) Often the water was dirty, and it was unreliable because if there were drought-like conditions, there was little water in the cisterns. Kay Warren then goes on to illustrate that, like the Israelites, we tend to ignore God's offer of cold, fresh. living water and continue to dig our own cisterns, which dry up fast. We think that if we control everything, we'll have the joy we're seeking and things will turn out all right. At least I do. I can be a bit of a control freak sometimes. She also mentions that sometimes we trick ourselves into believing that we don't have the right personality to experience joy. I'd never thought of that before. I am prone to depression and melancholy, and I wonder if I don't use that as an excuse to be miserable. Egad! This blog is turning out to be more revealing than I imagined. I guess I'm not going to be perfect anyway until the Lord returns and finishes what He has started.