I don't know about the rest of you, but I haven't been all that happy lately. My Brewers been losing on a very regular basis, the Packers lost the season opener, we've been getting tons of rain and dreary weather lately, and there just seems to be a rash of bad news lately both locally and around the globe. The combination of all those things has been a struggle for me to overcome. Thankfully, I came across a few things today: Jimmy Fallon, Joy & Celebration. Here's the progression of events today:
1. I watched a YouTube video from The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon. The video is a segment called "I've Got Good News and Good News" (video linked below). It appears Jimmy, like me, was distraught from all of the bad news he'd been hearing lately. So he had several NBC news anchors do a fake newscast with only good news. It is a great video! Funny and refreshing! Of course this led me to 45 minutes of watching clips from Fallon's show...probably the highlight of my day!
2. Watching all of those Jimmy Fallon clips got me thinking about an article/blog post I read some time ago entitled "6 Things the Church Can Learn From Jimmy Fallon - #OrdainJimmmyFallon" by David Henson (article linked below). All 6 points the author makes are great, but I particularly got stuck on the first one: "Embrace Joy and Enthusiasm in the Moment". Jimmy does this in everything I've seen him do from SNL to The Tonight Show. He loves what he does, he's interested in and engaged with the people he is with, and he exudes joy and enthusiasm. His energy is so contagious. Isn't that what a life of faith should look like? Joyful. Enthusiastic. Contagious. Engaged. Radiating faith, hope, and love. I know I certainly don't fit that bill very often. I can't. None of us can. Because we're human and we fall short. But we should at least try to live like that right?
3. So how do we do that; live a life of joy and enthusiasm amid-st unhappiness and life's stresses? It seems that we are more naturally inclined towards cynicism and negativity.
My favorite music group Rend Collective has some thoughts on living a life of joy. They released an album called "The Art of Celebration" and with it, they put a video on YouTube explaining the message of the album (video linked below). I've seen the video several times before (even wrote about it in a past newsletter article), but seem to have forgotten about it and its message. I love how the speaker differentiates between joy and happiness. They are not the same thing. Joy is much more than happiness. I think joy is an attitude and mindset. A life of joy and celebration is one that searches for God, one that finds something to rejoice about in every situation, and one that loves God and loves people.
So today I'm thankful that:
1. I watched a YouTube video from The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon. The video is a segment called "I've Got Good News and Good News" (video linked below). It appears Jimmy, like me, was distraught from all of the bad news he'd been hearing lately. So he had several NBC news anchors do a fake newscast with only good news. It is a great video! Funny and refreshing! Of course this led me to 45 minutes of watching clips from Fallon's show...probably the highlight of my day!
2. Watching all of those Jimmy Fallon clips got me thinking about an article/blog post I read some time ago entitled "6 Things the Church Can Learn From Jimmy Fallon - #OrdainJimmmyFallon" by David Henson (article linked below). All 6 points the author makes are great, but I particularly got stuck on the first one: "Embrace Joy and Enthusiasm in the Moment". Jimmy does this in everything I've seen him do from SNL to The Tonight Show. He loves what he does, he's interested in and engaged with the people he is with, and he exudes joy and enthusiasm. His energy is so contagious. Isn't that what a life of faith should look like? Joyful. Enthusiastic. Contagious. Engaged. Radiating faith, hope, and love. I know I certainly don't fit that bill very often. I can't. None of us can. Because we're human and we fall short. But we should at least try to live like that right?
3. So how do we do that; live a life of joy and enthusiasm amid-st unhappiness and life's stresses? It seems that we are more naturally inclined towards cynicism and negativity.
My favorite music group Rend Collective has some thoughts on living a life of joy. They released an album called "The Art of Celebration" and with it, they put a video on YouTube explaining the message of the album (video linked below). I've seen the video several times before (even wrote about it in a past newsletter article), but seem to have forgotten about it and its message. I love how the speaker differentiates between joy and happiness. They are not the same thing. Joy is much more than happiness. I think joy is an attitude and mindset. A life of joy and celebration is one that searches for God, one that finds something to rejoice about in every situation, and one that loves God and loves people.
So today I'm thankful that:
- Jimmy Fallon is hilarious and lives his life with such unbridled joy and enthusiasm.
- Joy is not the same as happiness & Rend Collective has music to remind me of that.
- And God gives me so many reasons to be joyful and to celebrate!