The choir has been practicing songs for Thanksgiving, and over and over the theme of the season reminded me what happens when we give voice to our thanks, give voice to joy.

There are some people to think of religion as something to do with somber, long faces, believing God wants us to suffer because if we are truly good we will have so much to bear that we cannot be happy or carefree. What a lie!

It is our very nature as spiritual beings to rejoice, to feel joy, to feel delight in life and living. We feel the closest to God when we can relax our hold on our fears or false perceptions and allow our inner selves to be united with the flow of joy and gladness that is Spirit's response to our awareness of It's Presence. I know that God is not a person. Yet I feel that God rejoices, is thrilled when we turn our awareness to our inner selves and open ourselves to communion, that awareness of our oneness. Hey! Everything is all right. God is here in the midst of this.

Martha Smock in Turning Points reminds us that "Joy is an inherent God-quality in us that is fed and nourished by the Spirit of God within us. We may try to suppress it, keep it dammed up by unhappy, depressed thinking, but it wells up often enough, unexpectedly enough, for us to be aware of its presence."

Of course there are times in our lives when we have something difficult to meet. Everyone bumps into challenges, pressures, changes that scare us. Those are the very times it is so important for us to reach for the God-gift that is hidden within us. Reach for it. Let it well up.

I can hear you right now (didn't know that I have super hearing did you?). "It's okay for you, BUT I have serious problems to face." The only way we can face them is remembering to reach in for God. "There is nothing that God and I can't handle." Remember that. If I give God an inch of space to work with, if I reach in and grab a hold of anything to be grateful, focus on any thought that brought me a smidgen of happiness, look for any now thing that is beautiful, or growing or even just a bit less scary or angry or whatever, God can fill the space with something better. Our spirits can be lifted by Spirit.

If our lives seem flat, it's time to reach in for something better. It's time to allow ourselves to come alive again. How do we make this transformation? Let a tiny crack of God-light open in our soul; light a tiny spark of thankfulness and appreciation; give God's gift of joy a chance.

Remember today - reach in for joy - God is waiting for you.

In the One Love We All Share,

Rev. Lisa