Daily Dose 10/9

Fruit is a natural component of the reproducing cycle of the tree, vine or plant. Fruit happens because of the organic process that you find in healthy vegetation. The fruit that is revealed in your life happens because of your ongoing relationship with God the Father through Jesus Christ and is stated in scripture in the following way:  
Galatians 5: 22,23 - But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Interesting that happiness didn’t make the list - it’s not a fruit, it’s one of the pleasures of being created human and a part of God’s design.  But it’s not a lasting tangible fruit of our connection with the Holy Spirit. Notice that love is stated first.  I don’t think that this is by accident but by inspiration.  Love is the very core agent of our being, purpose and meaning - to love God and to love our neighbor.  Directly after love is joy, which follows what you love, or it could be said that what you find joy in, creates attachments and those attachments are the necessary channels for love to flow and to be found.  I met Jennifer, my wife, at Bible college, and we found much joy in spending time together walking and talking around the grounds of the school each evening.  Out of those joyful encounters developed a friendship and then an attachment to each other, a bond, a bond of love. This is how the very neuroscience of your brain design works. If you seek happiness, you receive a momentary, temporal pop of the chemical dopamine in the brain. Happiness is temporary.  It’s good but not the significant lasting peaceful assurance that comes from joy.  Joy takes place because of the meaningful attachments of relationship and purpose.  Let me illustrate this way: While happiness is buying and eating the fruit from the store, joy is the “organic” process of living, relating and abiding in relationship and then realizing the fruit of this friendship in you. Don’t go out and try to buy it, get it from the source.  Does it take some intentionality? Sure, but imagine with me what this next year would look like if you focused your energy and priorities on creating and fostering more joy in your life with God and others. 
Q: What friendship brings you joy and fulfillment? 
Q: Do you feel that God takes joy in your relationship with you? Is that thought difficult for you to accept?