On advent, on joy

“It takes courage to open ourselves to joy…I believe joy is probably the most vulnerable emotion we experience. We’re afraid that if we allow ourselves to feel it, we’ll get blindsided by disaster or disappointment.”

- Brené Brown

It seems a bit backwards that joy would be the most vulnerable emotion we experience, but there’s something to that. 

Choosing joy is choosing hope. It opens us up to being surprised, to being let down, to being hurt. 

It is much safer to not choose joy. 

It is much safer to live in low expectations and find ourselves pleasantly surprised when things work out (or justified when they don’t).

It’s predictable. 

When I think of little Julianne, I would her to know that choosing joy is worth it. It’s worth the surprise. It’s worth the potential of disappointment and hurt. 

Don’t get me wrong, I like predictable. I love predictable. And I really don’t care for surprises. 

We may stay safe in the predictable spaces, but we certainly don’t grow. 

And my wish for Little Julianne is to experience it all and experience it deeply. 

It’s risky to choose joy. It’s a risk to trust we will be okay. And an even bigger risk to trust we will be more than okay. 

When we choose joy, we choose to be brave. 

May we all be brave and bold in our joy.