Chapter 14

The Fitting Room – Chapter 14 from Bloom (in)courage on Vimeo.

Well this on certainly packed a punch, didn’t it?!?!?!

Joy.

It’s that word that people love to talk about but not many people live lives that show it. As usual, Kelly hit the nail on the head in the final chapter, and there are a few things that stand out to me every time I read it.

On page 185 she talks about the way we have to “fight” for joy, and that this is not a word commonly associated with other virtues. I think it’s so true, and I think she’s exactly right when she continues on to say that this struggle for joy is much more present in affluent societies than anywhere else. And my favorite?

Joy is not complicated.

I need a banner for my front door with that written on it, or at the very least, a bedazzled t-shirt.

We spend so much of our lives searching for joy that we wouldn’t know how to feel it if it landed in our spoiled laps. I’m not making personal attacks here, but I do know the shoe fits me and I would certainly like to know I have some company.

I mean, what is joy when you have nothing? Probably not much. Food? Watching your child breathe life? A song?

It’s all of those and a million other things we skim over while we track down the thing that we think gives it to us. It’s trite-all of this, and as a writer I’m tempted to try and dig through and pull up a more distinct message. We’ve all heard this one before and some of you have already moved to the next thing because this was your sermon series from last summer and it’s all just words on paper.

But it’s not.

We have this opportunity here. Now. In the present moment.

To wrap our arms around every gift we are given (yes, breath) and thank the One who made it happen. We don’t need debit cards or social calendars to get to the joy-place. We are His.

As Kelly so beautifully phrases it (and yes, it may well end up as the back of my t-shirt), “We look for pockets of happiness to sustain us…” (pg. 186).

Oh my, oh my, oh my.

I hope you heard that, and that you’re ready to stop digging into the shallow pockets that the world offers in so many forms. The truth is that all of these things are stealing from you, and every time you make a deposit into them you have chosen the lesser.

I pray that in the past several weeks you have seen our hearts in sharing all of this with you, and that you will be genuinely changed as you seek Him with knowledge of the way He wants you to be dressed. That you will go to Him to be the source of all things beautiful and life-giving.

And that when you leave this dressing room, you will be clothed in joy.

We are so grateful for this time together, and so excited about what’s ahead.

We love you, ladies!!!

Angie, Jess and the (in)courage girls.