{"id":312,"date":"2021-07-15T21:54:46","date_gmt":"2021-07-16T02:54:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.edenuccchicago.org\/blog\/?p=312"},"modified":"2021-07-15T21:57:00","modified_gmt":"2021-07-16T02:57:00","slug":"do-we-have-to-choose-joy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.edenuccchicago.org\/blog\/2021\/07\/15\/do-we-have-to-choose-joy\/","title":{"rendered":"Do We Have to Choose Joy?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"140\" height=\"204\" class=\"wp-image-41\" style=\"width:140px;float:left;margin-right:10px;\" src=\"http:\/\/www.edenuccchicago.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/JackiBelile-cropped.jpg\" alt=\"The Rev. Jacki Belile\">Well, yes and no.\u00a0<br><br>Like many gifts of truth on the spiritual journey, there&#8217;s a paradox to understand. A &#8220;both-and.&#8221;\u00a0 Paul says joy is a &#8220;fruit&#8221; of the Spirit. A result, an outcome, a product of One who is greater than us.<br><br>So, it&#8217;s not OUR choice?<br><br>Well, yes and no&#8230;<br><br>Let&#8217;s ponder together this Sunday and next week&#8230; what choices enable joy? What gets in the way?\u00a0 What is the Source?\u00a0 Does it matter how we prepare for it? Access it?<br><br>I dare you to google &#8220;joy quote images.&#8221;\u00a0 You&#8217;ll see pages of pastels and pretty fonts and light-hearted cheery messages.<br><br>I can promise you these ARE NOT the substance of what we&#8217;ll be talking about or aspiring to.\u00a0 Christian joy is not a synonym for easy times.\u00a0 It has grit, resilience, and &#8220;nevertheless&#8221; in its DNA.\u00a0 <br><br>It&#8217;s the REAL THING promised to us.\u00a0 Let&#8217;s scratch the surface together Sunday&#8230;<br><br>In Christ&#8217;s Peace,<br>Pastor Jacki<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Well, yes and no.\u00a0 Like many gifts of truth on the spiritual journey, there&#8217;s a paradox to understand. A &#8220;both-and.&#8221;\u00a0 Paul says joy is a &#8220;fruit&#8221; of the Spirit. A result, an outcome, a product of One who is greater than us. So, it&#8217;s not OUR choice? Well, yes and no&#8230; Let&#8217;s ponder together this<span class=\"post-excerpt-end\">&hellip;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.edenuccchicago.org\/blog\/2021\/07\/15\/do-we-have-to-choose-joy\/\" class=\"themebutton\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edenuccchicago.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edenuccchicago.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edenuccchicago.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edenuccchicago.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edenuccchicago.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.edenuccchicago.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":315,"href":"https:\/\/www.edenuccchicago.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312\/revisions\/315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edenuccchicago.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edenuccchicago.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edenuccchicago.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}