JOY like a Light Bulb

JOY - what we are working with this week- is an amazingly powerful spiritual quality.  But it seems to me that we generally use it wrong.  Or at least we capture its weaker side.

The first step in attaining a little bit of the glow of Divine Joy is to realize that deep spiritual joy is in the moment.  Human joy may be about something that just happened, pride in what we have accomplished, or joyous anticipation of the future.  But, Divine Joy is in the now - the moment.  It is not about past or future.  Neither are truly real.  Only NOW exists in the Divine.  That is why the highest states of spiritual ecstasy are related to living in the "Eternal Now".

Stop to feel joy - not joy about something - just JOY.  It flushes your whole being with a radiance of well-being.  That starts growing as you give it attention and continues to expand until your whole being is radiant - glowing like a light bulb.  When we simply sit in the presence of Joy - immerse ourselves in the moment of joy & stay in the moment, it rises within us into a state of ecstasy.  But for many this state is uncomfortable and we rush to throw off the energy in activity.  If instead, we hold the glow inwardly, we can calmly go about activities while living our lives in a radiant state.  Life responds to this radiance, & though ecstatic joy is its own reward, you can expect the world around you to alter the way it relates to you - alter for the better.

It seems to me that JOY is like an electric current.  When channeled into an electric motor is creates activity and motion.  This is how we are most accustomed to using joy.  It is fun, yet the energy is dispersed into the activity and when used up leaves us empty once again.  An electric current can be channeled into a light bulb where it creates no motion or activity.  However as it is captured and internalized by the filament in the bulb, the energy becomes radiant, quietly transforming the whole room around it.  This is the power of Divine Joy moving through our hearts as ecstasy in the NOW.

Let JOY smolder inside of you.  Remain calm and cherish the energy internally.  Let it expand until you glow like that light bulb.  The beauty of ecstasy is how it grows exponentially.  Recently, I read of research into the use of solar sails to power space craft into space.  The solar push is subtle and the craft starts off slowly.  But it builds and it continues to build.  Into the trip a little ways, the craft has accelerated to hundreds of thousands of miles per hour.  A subtle radiance that is internalized over a period of time creates an overwhelming glow that can turn any mundane life into the most stimulating trip one could ever take.

In regard to the Divine Energy of JOY, be the light bulb, not the motor.  Keep the Divine Gift internalized until the radiance transforms every part of your life.  The motor may move you down the road at 60 miles per hour.  But the solar sail, while it starts out at a very few miles per hour will shortly build to an unimaginable speed.  Joy radiance internalized will begin by making a hard life bearable, but quickly build into the bright radiant Light that produces a life of ever-connecting-miracles.