Fullness of Joy

“ If your first concern is to look after yourself, you'll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you'll find both yourself and me.” –Matt 10:39

Last night in my Holy Yoga Masters training, I was introduced to “Trauma-Sensitive Holy Yoga” (Thanks Heidi Vance!)  In this practice, a healing journey is pursued through the use of the breath, mindfulness and movement.  It is an empowering practice that allows students to gain awareness into how trauma has affected them: mind, body, & spirit.  The human response to trauma is personal and unique for each individual.  God gifted each of us with automatic coping skills that help us get to the other side of a traumatic event.  We may run.  We may fight.  OR (like I tend to do), we may freeze!  This was my a-ha moment of self discovery through the power of the Holy Spirit.  In my experience with trauma, I am a “freezer”.  Being a “freezer” isn’t necessarily bad… It is a survival skill that may work in certain situations…(maybe?)  But the problem with being a perpetual “freezer”  is that we can go numb as a result (pun intended).  When we (I!) continue to practice this skill of freezing, we don’t really ever process the trauma.  It can get stuck in our souls like a revolving memory.  Really the act of numbing our feelings is the opposite of “practicing presence’.  One of the reasons I love the practice of yoga is that it forces me to BE STILL.  I can forget my “to do lists”, step away from the busy, and just be in the moment.  A rare opportunity practice presence.   It is in this space that The Lord often reveals Himself to us.  It is also in this space of stillness that He shows us who we are.  He did this for me this week.  He showed me how I have a space in my heart that is closed off for self protection.  He is gently restoring that space and allowing me to heal.   See, When we push down those emotions and feelings we are burying our hearts.  Closing them off to the bad, but also to the good!!  Jesus does not want this, friends.  In John 10:10 He says “I came that you may have and ENJOY life… and have it abundantly”  It is in HIS presence that we can truly have FULLNESS of JOY (Ps 16:11)   With our buried worries is buried joy. Numbness closes us off to the intimate relationship with the Lord.  Let’s open our hearts to be fully present and experience life in abundance and fullness of joy. 

Meekness is not weakness

"Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth." -Mark 5:5

Think, for a moment, about success.  What comes to mind?  A "go getter"?  A big house with a nice car in front of it?  Straight A's, scholarships, awards…we teach our kids to set their goals high and go after them, right?  Not to settle for mediocrity.  But Jesus tells us that the meek will inherit the earth.  What does this mean?  As I dug into this verse, I came to the conclusion that Jesus DOES want us to be ambitious …driven… successful!  He just wants us to do it in a meek manner.  

Christ Himself was meek.  He was humble & forgiving, full of grace and mercy!  He was also Full of passion and power! POWER brought under control.  Soooo, the meekness that Jesus is preaching about is one of humble submission.  This takes strength, friends.   The Greeks used the word praus to describe the a wild horse that has been broken. That once wild, bucking horse is now a calm and submissive. But that horse still has the same strength and passion, it is just channeled for the benefit of it's master.  See, the way I understand it, meekness is is not an extinguishing of our inner passion,  it is igniting it!  Then instead of just letting it burn freely, we channel our passions!  We channel our God-given spiritual gifts, and our Christ given Holy power to be used for His glory.   It’s not a weakening  of our passion… it is CHANNELING it…. !  And in doing so we become rich. 

  "You're blessed when you're content with JUST who you are-no more, no less.  That's the moment you find yourself proud owners of everything that can't be bought."-Matt 5:5 The Message Bible