“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” – Galatians 5:22
This past Sunday we continued our Summer Ordinary Time Series, “Growing Fruit Together”. Each week, an individual or a couple from our church will reflect on a particular fruit of the Spirit using their own life story. This week, David and Denise shared with beauty, honesty, and vulnerability about their journey with joy. Their story rippled through us as we shared in their sorrow and tasted the emergence of their joy. Once again, I was struck by the beautiful humans the Spirit is drawing to Southpoint.
Joy grows in us, even in the midst of gut wrenching disappointment, as the Spirit softens and opens our hearts to the vulnerability of sorrow and joy, and deep, authentic, embodied connections with life.
Here is a beach prayer practice that you might want to try this week to soften and open your heart to joy.
Take a bowl to the beach and fill it up with salt water. Gather a pile of little stones. Using a stone for each sadness, explore with God the sadnesses you hold in your heart. Place these sadnesses in the water, imagining God’s presence with you, holding the bowl, and God’s love as the water surrounding the stones. Linger as long as you need. Then, using a stone for each one, explore with God the various sources of joy in your life, those large and small things that enliven you. Place each of them in the bowl. Linger as long or as little as you need. Ending with a prayer of gratitude to God, return the water and the rocks back to the ocean, releasing them into the vastness of God.
Blessings, Anne