It’s been an joyous week. And I say this not to brag, but to prove the world wrong. I’ve been listening to Air1 this week, and the hot topic has been Monday.
According to Psychologists, Monday was the most depressing day of the year. I guess this day falls the third January of every year because the hoopla of the holidays is finally over, most people have already ignored their resolutions, Martin Luther King day is over and so this marks a long stretch until the next holiday, and on and on… As you can see, the reasons could keep going.
However, the stories about joy this week has been so heartwarming. Listeners keep calling in to talk about their joyous moments, and two have really made me smile. Yesterday a woman called in to share the story of how her and her husband heard their first baby’s heartbeat for the very first time. There’s nothing more joyous than the sound of life, and
I have this love of the sound and feel of heartbeats.
And I can only imagine how much joy that little flutter brought this couple.
Then this morning, another woman called in to share how sixteen years ago this Monday her husband proposed. Which sparked another caller sharing that Monday would’ve marked the 74th wedding anniversary of her grandparents.
The world, tied up in satan’s snares, tries to get us down. It tries to break our hope. And right now is the perfect time. Winter often brings sadness, depression, lack of sunlight, long days, and feelings of hopelessness. Though January rings in a brand new year, the excitement of holidays and family are over, we start to fail at our resolutions, tax season is around the corner, and maybe even some start to realize the consequences of the holiday eating and stress. This time of year really takes a toll on us.
But the Air1 conversation shows that no matter how much the world tries to take hold, God is there. In spite of what may seem like an unavoidable depressing time of year, He gives us joyous moments if we dare to hope in Him. Psalm 30:5, The Message version, says: Across a lifetime there is only love. The nights of crying your eyes out give way to days of laughter [joy comes in the morning]. So I started thinking about my last week and made of list of the joyous moments, big or small, in spite of a week of literal gloominess. They aren’t as great and wonderful as a new life or celebration of love, but they are there. My training has been on the downside lately… I’m starting to feel tired, my body hurts because I’m beating it up so much, and it often feels like I’m never going to improve in speed, or volume, or strength. But something happened this week.
- I finally found my stroke in swimming. When I came into triathlon last year, I was not a swimmer. In fact, it’s still my weakness, though I’m past the fear of drowning stage. The biggest problem I faced was my lack of being able to multi-task while swimming. And by that I mean stroking my arms and kicking my legs at the same time. I don’t have very good coordination, and though I can make it several lengths in a pool, my form is not very smooth. Until this week. It was as if something just switched inside me halfway through my workout last Wednesday. I was about 400m into a swim and suddenly I was stroking and kicking at the same time. My body fell into a rhythm, and I felt everything working together.
- As I was practicing yoga this week, I found my body once again flipping the
switch. My favorite stretch is regular Pigeon because it really helps me stretch the important muscles I use with running, but I’ve wanted to fall into the pose deeper for awhile, and I finally did. Yes, I twisted myself into Pigeon Crescent.
I’ve been working on my core and balance, which I know has helped. It was a super neat feeling, just knowing that all the work has finally been coming together. - But better than that was Sunday’s weather. For a brief couple of hours, the sun shone brightly and the temperature hit about 53 degrees. Which means I ran outside in shorts and took it all in. Then it hit me that this kind of weather might not be around for awhile, so I took my new bike for a spin and enjoyed every, smooth moment of it.
It’s funny because I am at the point in my training where am exhausted and really wondering if all this pushing is worth it, while most nights I go to bed with some kind of ache or pain. But those aha moments where everything just falls into place are worth every bit of hard work. Training, like life, is a process. And most of the time it seems like I’m just prepping and that I’m never going to feel any different. But then suddenly, that morning comes when everything—body, mind, spirit—just slide into one another and come together. And everything I have been working so hard for finally reveals itself.
So yes, I have had a lot of hard, depressing training days, but that joy was just around the corner.
- Not to mention that Masterpiece Theatre started their annual Jane Austen showing for the next five weeks, and premiered a new version of Emma.
- I took a step of faith and applied for my first job in a list of a few.
- The sun is shining again today!
But the most joyous moment of all is that Casey is coming home. After a year of prayers, God is fulfilling that hope. We still don’t have a for sure date when the guys will be back on home soil, but it’s soon. So very, very soon.
No matter the big or small, that one little piece of joy can change our day. Because when we focus on that joy, God roots it in our hearts and does something with it. He brings us peace.
So how can you fight the world? I’d like to hear your joyous moments.
"Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: The unfailing love of the Lord never ends!"
-Lamentations 3:21
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