A Prayer for Joy

A Prayer for Joy

God who told the weeping wall-builders, The joy of the Lord is your strength (Nehemiah 8:10) — breathe joy back into a heart that has forgotten the taste of it. Not the joy that requires everything to be fine, but the deeper joy that finds me in the not-yet-fine. You rejoice over me with singing (Zephaniah 3:17); let me catch a few notes of that song. Like the woman with the lost coin who lit a lamp and called her neighbors to celebrate (Luke 15:8–9) — teach me to notice the small recoveries today and to celebrate them. In your presence is fullness of joy (Psalm 16:11). I will come back to that presence again and again. Amen.