Joy is an action as well as a feeling.

There are times when the craziness of our lives overwhelms us, when the problems of our loved ones leave our hearts aching, when the pain of this world – the destruction of the environment, the violence erupting around us feels like a burden too heavy to bear. During the times when we feel only sadness. we ask, “Where is our joy?” Beth Richardson in her book, The Uncluttered Heart, says, “It is in these times that we learn that Joy is not just a feeling. It’s an action.”

Monday afternoon, (I think), on CBC radio an interview concerning research on the joy of giving caught my attention. (I tried to find it on line this morning but failed.) What I remember was, an experiment to discover if there was more joy in buying a gift for someone else than for myself. Statistically significant results showed that giving a gift to someone other than self,  brought more joy to giver. Actually I didn’t need a scientist to give me this information. I learned this fact years ago. What’s new for me is Beth Richardson’s words describing this fact, Joy is an action as well as a feeling.

Why do we love the Christmas Spirit? Why does our joy tend to increase during the Christmas season? I believe we find joy in our Christian Christmas celebration because it pushes us to action. The tradition of giving gifts to others, that is based in the story of the Wisemen bringing gifts to baby Jesus, is the action that can bring Joy into the darkest parts of our lives.

Your thought and mine for this day is:

Today, I will act to bring Joy to at least one person because

Joy is an action as well as a feeling.