The Joy of the Lord: When pure love for God was found in cassette tapes, Barbies and diapers

Have you ever been around a Holy Roller? 

Okay, honestly that term probably has gotten a bad rap over the years. I remember many "God encounters" growing up. Special, anointed divine times with my God. Maybe I was a Jesus Freak or just a bit of a geek, but I loved planting myself in my room with worship music blasting. Would you believe that some of my earliest worship memories happened in my own room...with my dolls and barbies. Yup, God works in mysterious ways. My brother and I loved to play songs together and as we grew older, Joseph began a serious love of sound equipment and would record our songs. Somewhere these can be found on cassette tapes. 

Cassette tapes. Remember those?

I remember going through countless little "devo's." and would fill in the blank at every question. 

I was hungry. And I didn't find myself typical. 

I often didn't fit into my own age group. Adults were my friends more often than not. 

Then college happened in 2001. Bible College. I majored in Bible and Theology, minored in Journalism. In classes, I was the silent one. But get me in a conversation with my close friends or around a group in the dorms and I totally opened up. 

All-nighter's were spent at our 24-hour Starbucks up the hill. There were many times a wide smile would break out across my face while I was studying with a quad Venti in front of me (yup, college ruined me and began my coffee addiction). 

Pure joy ripped through every fiber of my being. I had never had to study so hard and remember so much. Call me lame, but papers were my favorite, even though I wasn't always good at them. I  soaked up the study time. I loved the research and digging deep. Tests have never been my strong suit, but I just simply and honestly fell in love with God. 

College life made God more personal than I had ever experienced. 

His still small voice could be found in prayer walks around campus, times of worship with  friends and a guitar on the grass and in so many conversations and shared life experiences. 

In all the churches I've attended growing up, I had never seen such a beauty in the body of Christ, like I had in college. 

I became friends with a guy who spent several months in between college, living in the middle of nowhere, in a cabin, in isolation. He would return to school and share his story. He met God there. 

I met with a small group of girls just about every week for a time of prayer and homemade treats in my dorm room, because I knew the Spirit could be found in our time together. 

Youth ministry was what I breathed in and out the most, climaxing in helping out with three youth ministries, many miles from each other, my senior year. I was crazy. And I wouldn't change a thing. 

I was beyond stretched and available more than ever before. I stepped up to the daunting tasks of mentoring a few teen girls, teaching for the first time to an age group I once felt distant from and even leading worship on multiple occasions. 

All around me were countless opportunities, with not much more than a crazy schedule holding me back. 

And my friends were so varied. Some where the more "hippie Jesus Freaks" and others were ultra conservative Baptists. I was friends with two girls who later came out as lesbians and roomed with a wonderful sister who grew up as a missionary kid in Africa. 

Simply said, I have found that the joy of the Lord is contagious and life giving. Once when you've experienced it, how can you settle for "normal?" 

I have found this joy in the faces of strangers I have passed a sandwich to on the streets, the homeless woman I hugged and prayed for healing in her body and in my own daughters sweet giggle. This joy is found in my those closest to me, inflicted with pain and disease yet who persevere despite the odds. And joy, pure joy of the Lord, found in my friends who advocate on behalf of those who have no voice, to make sure their rights are not taken from them. 

Definitely, as I've grown, I've been stretched. Many uncomfortable prospects have been set before me and I've had to choose to move thru them or find a way around them.

Without fail, more joy and life blessings have been found as I've chosen to move thru those decisions, with the guidance of the Spirit. 

A certain boldness arose deep inside me as I chose to be all that God would want me to be. Even in the moments I felt least adequate, he met me and equipped me, much better than I could do on my own strength.

God hasn't stopped moving in my life, even when my availability feels less than it previously did. 

God is still working in and through me because I'm learning to say yes to his timing. 

Life for sure looks like a different level of freedoms and responsibilities and I can't necessarily go and do as easily anymore...with many things. 

But what opportunities lay before me are endless and beautiful in their own way. Even the poopy diapers and interrupted Bible study prep time have their own sense of the pure joy of the Lord. Now I find God in countless interrupted parent moments and mommy play dates where we referee our kiddos while we talk theology and Holy Spirit moments.

This joy is totally abundant when a friend chooses to embrace me, despite my horrible mess and crazy life and share in the madness with me, reassuring me that I'm not alone.

For this joy is found in the still small voice and in the thundering chaos of life. 

Jesus met people where they were at, without condition. 

And he called them from where they worked and labored. 

His timing is always on par and his joy is always complete. Without fail.