Simple Heart

Are you happy? More importantly do you have joy?

I recently got to take my daughters to Disneyland and Sea World. Genevieve and I were there for a learning community about discipleship. It was a great time full of a lot of information, training, fun and also full of God speaking to our hearts.

While a lot of things stood out to me during our time there; I was struck by two situations in particular that speak about our hearts as adults.

The first happened at Disneyland. Genevieve and I were walking past another family when they let there two kids know they could hold hands to the next ride. They then jumped up in down  in joy about the simple pleasure of being able to hold hands! "We get to hold hands!"

The seconded thing that happened was at Sea World. God was incredibly generous to us. We were given free tickets to Sea World. ($225.00) Not only were we given free tickets but the person who gave them to us allowed us to go behind the scenes. My girls got to get up and personal to Sea Lions and Dolphins. They fed, trained, and touched them. The thing that struck me though was my youngest. She was right there with a dolphin in Sea World and you know what she wanted to do? Splash in the water. She derived the most joy at Sea World from splashing in the water and later playing with leaves, sticks, and the curb.

When I reflect on how much joy children get from the simplest things; it reminds me that we should seek to be more like them. We fill our lives with so much junk that is ultimately trash. We have our minds so tied up in the busyness of adulthood we forget we can have joy now.

So I have a challenge for you. Go play in the dirt or splash around in the water for a bit. Play with your children for an hour the way they do. See if you can't recapture a little bit of that childish joy you used to have.

One last side note. While I do believe it is important to become more child like, I do have to note one thing that is extremely important. I believe that real Joy can only come through being connected to Jesus the son of God. Not from church, a political party, a movement, hobby, or any thing else outside of Christ. Not to say all those things don't allow us to have fun, but the joy that transcends temporal happiness comes from the father alone. Food for thought.