Joy Dare No. 16

I started this late because I got too engrossed with the workload for the first 3 weeks of the year.  I've finally decided to start yesterday.  

I'm working on some resolutions right now.  Active ones.  Real ones.  Something I can remember and do and share.  Simple ones enough to write about or snap a photo for.




Yesterday's Joy Dare called for: a gift that made you laugh, a gift that made you pray and a gift that made you quiet.  

What made me laugh yesterday was the reaction of my friend Jarro when we talked about our vocation for youth ministry.  He and I haven't been getting along for the past couple of years.  We've known each other as long as I can remember but our familiarity with each other has caused us to just focus on our differences and we've lost the purpose of why God has made us friends in the first place.  I met Jarro at the height of my work for youth ministry.  He has helped me quite a lot with understanding young people, himself included.  Being able to connect and hear him engage in a conversation about how he is reflecting about his youth ministry vocation again made me laugh because he responds with a kind of humorous anxiety.  A guy who has his stubborn frame and sometimes cocky air becomes vulnerable to the point of laughter when God taps his shoulder and says, "Come back to the fold."

What made me pray yesterday was a chat with one of my shepherds in the youth.  She shared about how she has been praying for the apostolate and seeking out God's direction.  It worries her that we are not able to fully see the purpose of why apostolates have been formed and continue to seek only our own fulfillment.  This made me pray yesterday because it sparks in me the hunger to see God work again.  In my life.  In the apostolate's life.  

At the end of the day, I found myself quietly pondering about these things.  And everything that has happened yesterday in the end has made me quiet.

I thank God for these things that redirect my life back to His path for only His path makes sense in my life.

Want to take your own Joy Dare too?  Visit Ann Voskamp's website and start listing down the gifts you receive that make you find the true joy that lasts.



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