What is Joy? What does it do for the heart? The soul? The mind? Does having Joy give one strength? These are all questions that passed through my mind as I was Spring cleaning the master bedroom yesterday. Nothing major. Cleaning. Decluttering. Reorganizing. Now, I am no expert; but I know a little. Command position? Check. Head North? Check. Not exactly Feng Shui, but better. Breezier. More liveable. Still, not free; not that freedom from darkness where I can finally exhale and breathe… and that for a good long while. Still not that Joy; that long- and sorely-missed Joy that I once had in family and God. That Joy left me when my Father died; and yet it has not returned. When, I wonder, will restoration happen?

They say when God closes a door, He opens a window. My Father dying was the closing of a door; but through all the grief and suffocation, I noticed not He has left me a window; one through which, if opened, fresh air comes; gusts and gusts of warm Spring breeze. What is it? Joy. With Joy, this death, this darkness is conquerable. I know it. So how will it return? When will God come to me and free me from this grief and death, that I might be strong again and again rejoice with Him? As my Father would say: Keep thinking… and the answer will come.

And keep going. Press on to Joy and it will come.

Indeed.