Finding Joy
By Karleigh Wood
Director of Intel
In the movie “Finding Nemo” we meet a happy, friendly fish named Dory. She is highly relational and joyful about every aspect of the journey. She exuberantly starts grand adventures, but somewhere along the way she has momentary memory loss–requiring her to ask questions to point her back in the direction that she originally intended to go.
Have you ever found yourself saying “YES” to something God is opening up, knowing it was where God wanted you to go (or with just a faint knowing in your spirit) but without many details?
I like to think that, in God’s kindness, He does not want us to be overwhelmed with all the details right out of the gate.
Maybe for a great first step, we just need to say “yes” and get the joy of discovering the rest with Him. What happens when you find yourself several steps into a new territory/journey, and all of a sudden that confident “LET’S GO!” is not as strong in your spirit? Suddenly, doubts creep in and the question “Did I make the right choice?” comes to the surface.
Being a warrior, we know it is the process that makes us rich. But, what if, along the way, joy somehow gets lost? We keep moving forward, but (like Dory) have some lapses in memory and understanding. What started as passion fades into function.
This is when powerful questions that we all love to ask come into play. In this place, the questions become:
Why am I here?
Who am I becoming?
Where am I going?
What is my passion at this time?
What new level of intimacy is available?
Asking these questions, and discovering their answers in on-going conversations with God, has a way of propelling us forward with new zeal and focus.
Abiding in those questions and conversation guards us from unknowingly becoming like Dory. It fuels us with passion, infuses us with delight, and releases joy with every intentional powerful choice that we make to move forward in God’s plans and purposes for us-thereby creating new momentum and intentionality needed for the next leg of the journey.
– Karleigh
