In considering joy, I'm slowly coming to realize that having joy is not merely a matter of emotions, but an act of the will. I suppose this summarizes what I've been trying to figure out through this blog. I'm glad I've been writing this as it has helped me to see where I am and what my thoughts actually are. It is good to get these all out for others to see, and if I've helped anybody along the way, then I'm really pleased. If not, well, at least God has made some things clearer to me than they had been before. It's not that I didn't know these things before, but knowing something in one's head and knowing something from experience is two entirely different things. Knowing it in one's heart is critical to acting upon it. And the reverse it also true--sometimes you have to act on something before it gets into your heart.
I find that music helps me ingrain some of these things. My favorite Christian band would be Newsboys. I know some of you reading this don't like them, but I think they have the best way of putting things in their lyrics. There's one song called "Landslide of Love" from the album Devotion that I love. The chorus goes "Every time a  tear drop falls/It's kicking up dust in a world of pain/ Let's get drenched under God's good rain/Caught in a deluge of mercies/Like a pebble clings to dirt/We're still anchored in bedrock sin/let's get back on our feet again/Caught in a landslide of love." Now who would think that a landslide is a good thing? I remember in my junior year of high school, my history teacher Mr. Christie had us do a big report on a topic of our choosing, and one student did a report on landslides. While she was giving it, he started singing "Ha Ha Ha Ha buried alive, buried alive." (Yes, that's a Beegees reference there.) It still makes me laugh to this day. But the metaphor that the Newsboys song is that we want to be completely, totally immersed in God's love and mercy, to the point that we are carried away as if in a landslide. I like songs that make me think as that one does. There is my joy for the day.