Gracious Joy

Hello faithful family, friends, and followers and welcome. As I considered what to share this week I kept being drawn to Joy’s often expressed graciousness in her empathy for others. I have been encouraging her to consider sharing her thoughts in writing, probably to the point of pestering, but as she is quick to share, expressing herself in writing has always been difficult for her, even before the accident, and is understandably even more challenging now.

In the posts Joy has written so far, she felt she had a clear vision of wanting to share her limited but profound memories immediately following the accident, as well as, the desire to express her sincere gratitude for all who supported us prayerfully, emotionally, financially, and physically. But since then, formulating further written thoughts, as our life has morphed into our “new normal,” has left her struggling with what she would write next in a message to you all.

Joy has shared with me some wonderful insights into the word “joy” both in what it means to her now and what it has meant to her over time and in regard to her name. She has also shared with me what I consider profound thoughts around suffering, a subject on which she can be undeniably considered an expert. But while I will let her, in her own time, share these insights on joy and suffering, I wanted to take an opportunity to express my thankfulness and gratitude for the blessings I live with each day through Joy’s expressions of empathy and graciousness to those around her.

From the very beginning of Joy’s consciousness after that accident, she has focused more on concern for others than on herself. It would have been very easy for her to wallow in her pain and physical and cognitive losses, but she did not. She worked with all her heart every step of the way and I can honestly say she never complained. She even expressed compassion for the young man who struck us, concern for his emotional and spiritual wellbeing. She expressed sadness and grief, but it was never in the form of complaint. She put her head down and worked. First moving the slightest flickering muscle responses in her paralyzed right side, a toe, then her leg, her right shoulder, then right arm, then right thumb, then all her fingers and toes. Then there was learning to stand, learning to walk, learning to talk and on and on… And all this while in a mental cloud of not being fully sure of who she was, who I was, or where she was. She truly demonstrated Herculean efforts and all the while with a most gracious spirit.

But back to her graciousness toward those around her. In the day to day of our life Joy will often say, “You know, everybody suffers in some way,” holding the suffering of others equivalent to or greater than her own. I think she has always had a gracious heart and lived it out in her nursing and counseling careers, but it was never this close to the surface and never as spontaneous.

Through all her scars, physically and cognitively, the beauty of her graciousness shines through. She is truly a stunning reflection of the grace and mercy that God shows us. One of Brennan Mannings many books is titled, “The Relentless Tenderness of Jesus” and I appreciate it for several reasons, but one is that I think the term, “relentless tenderness,” does a marvelous job of describing Joy’s approach to her recovery and graciousness shown to others and that it also speaks to God’s graciousness shown to us. In it Manning writes:

Unlike ourselves, the Father of Jesus loves men and women, not for what He finds in them, but for what lies within Himself. It is not because men and women are good that He loves them, nor only good men and women that He loves. It is because He is so unutterably good that He loves all persons, good and evil… He loves the loveless, the unloving, the unlovable. He does not detect what is congenial, appealing, attractive, and respond to it with His favor. In fact, He does not respond at all. The Father of Jesus is a source. He acts; He does not react. He initiates love. He is love without motive.

What this says simply is that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is gracious. His love is gratuitous in a way that defies our imagination.

"His love is gratuitous in a way that defies our imagination." Just let that sink in for a moment. And then, in affirmation of His “relentless tenderness,” here are some parting thoughts from our Bible reading this week:

My heart is confident in you, O God;

no wonder I can sing your praises with all my heart!

Wake up, lyre and harp!

I will wake the dawn with my song.

I will thank you, LORD, among all the people.

I will sing your praises among the nations.

For your unfailing love is higher than the heavens.

Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.

Be exalted, O God, above the highest heavens.

May your glory shine over all the earth. Ps 108:1-5