How loud is your "happy"?

In We Bought a Zoo, the ever-adorable Maggie Elizabeth Jones as Rosie Mee talks about her "happy". It's that place of unabashed joy inside a person,  and it travels from your soul outward.


Little Rosie, hearing reveling neighbors one night declares "Their happy is too loud."


How loud is your "happy"?


While the movie references a secular type of happiness, pure joy comes from the Lord and can never be too loud.


"These things we write unto you, that your joy may be full." 1 John 1:4


Jesus wants us to have full joy, complete and unashamed. Anything less is robbery. We wouldn't allow a burglar to come in and take our possessions and then just shrug our shoulders. We'd take action. We'd call the police, press charges, give an inventory.


Yet we allow Satan to steal our joy and instead of fighting back, we slink off like a dog with his tail tucked between his legs.


The problem for most people is we don't even realize it sometimes.


Don't Know What You Got (Til It's Gone)...


I'm pretty sure Cinderella was singing about a woman in the 80's rock ballad but the sentiment applies to our joy as well.


I didn't even realize that my joy was no longer full. I should have. Little things started bothering me and I was taking things way too personally. I found myself getting more aggravated on the streets yet it wasn't their attitudes that had changed; it was mine.


I wasn't unhappy, though, so it was much harder to recognize. I still loved my life, my ministry, my home. I just had a small leak in my joy and it was seeping out.


Tires have Fix a Flat, but we have the Holy Spirit. And we have His Word. These are more powerful than anything you can find at Auto Zone. But like those cans of air, they do no good until we apply them.


I knew that my leak had stopped when I found myself humming again. I was grocery shopping alone the other day when I realized I was humming Angels We Have Heard on High. It's the middle of August so I don't know why a Christmas carol was in my heart.


Perhaps it was the phone call from my oldest, and perennially organized, daughter Callie. Having budgeted her Christmas shopping to begin in May, we'd recently discussed wish lists. Maybe she'd gotten me into a subconscious Christmas spirit.
The next day I walked into a crowded elevator humming I've Got That Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy Down in My Heart. I got some strange looks. Maybe they thought my "happy" was too loud?
I realized at that moment that not only was my fullness of joy back, but that it had actually been gone and I never realized it.


Because when it's there, I always have a song in my heart. I hum walking across parking lots, in stores, while cleaning. I go to sleep humming a song and I wake up knowing my spirit was singing all night long.


Joy.


A right. A prized possession. A valuable commodity.


Don't let the devil rob you.  Hold on to it. If you've lost it, take it back.


Though the sorrow may last for a night, joy comes in the morning...


We aren't meant to stay in a place of mourning forever. Whatever the situation, the circumstance...we are made to get up and live.


I often hear, You just don't understand...


This comes from church members as well as people on the streets.


I do understand, though. I once said the same words when others tried to minister to me.


Back then, my joy hadn't just sprung a leak. The entire engine had fallen out, tie-rods busted, gasoline imploded...you get the picture.


There was no joy to be found. No distant ladder in the dark pits of despair.


Yet here I am today.


Proof positive that you CAN overcome and that your joy may once again be full.


You should expect nothing less for your life.