Involuntary smiles. The kind that expose your teeth and make the sides of your eyes crinkle.

It’s the natural response every time a giggling child comes into view or a toddler uninhibitedly dances and sings to their favorite song despite it being the 100th time it’s been played that day alone.

There’s a reason those subjects become viral videos.

Why, then, do we suppress our giggles? Refuse to admit the playfulness that lurks just below the surface? Why, as we grow into adulthood, do we begin to fear the response of others if we fling our arms wide, sing at full voice, and dance with whatever rhythm we possess?

We are wired for joy. Despite that, and against our innate design, we allow the cares of the world to grow up and choke the life out of us. We allow the dimming of the twinkle in our eyes that our Creator placed there and that our Father delights to see. We call it unsophisticated, immature, unprofessional. Some even go so far as to call it unholy.

It’s time that we reclaim joy from the oppressive grip of the enemy.

It’s time that we stop agreeing with the one who would silence our song and steal the dance from our feet.
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It’s time we laugh until we can hardly catch our breath.

Yes, there are things that must be done. Yes, there is a time for work and serious deliberation. Yes, there is darkness in the world. There is also blinding Light. And there is a time for joy.

Unabashed. Unfiltered. Full-out. Loud. Infectious. Joy.

Let’s practice: Find one place and time this week to be out-loud joyful. Tell that voice that says it’s going to make you the center of unwanted attention to hush.  Twirl in dance. Sing. Get with a friend and share the silly thoughts that have occurred to you. Pull out favorite photos or videos and smile at the memories. Play a simple (or complex!) game that you love.

“A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.” Proverbs 17:22
 

I am currently seated in the ground floor of a local landmark. Above me towers 226 feet (69 meters) of vertical space. The only accessible areas are at the ground floor and the very top. Everything else in between – hundreds of cubic feet of concrete and steel – serve to lift the tower and the visitors to that uppermost access point. This whole place serves one purpose: an elevated viewpoint.

You see, the top floor is not steel and concrete. It is glass. North, South, East, and West are unobstructed views for miles. On clear days, you can see 35 miles, multiple counties, and a host of geographical features. It’s a very different view from the ground floor where all is enclosed and immediate. Even when you are outdoors on the property, your view is restricted to neighboring businesses and a highway.

Decades ago, someone realized that getting higher up changed your understanding and appreciation of the area so drastically that it was worth great investment to build a singularly-purposed structure to achieve it.

The Lord tells us that His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. His view and understanding is exponentially greater than our own. The purpose for His plan is clearer from where He sits and His understanding of the outcome is as plain to see as the highway junctions are from this tower.

Oh, how we need to get some perspective. We, from our ground-floor vantage point refuse to travel the road because we can’t see where it goes. We argue that it’s nothing but business after business, unchanging scenery and predictably futile effort while He sees that if we’d only set out, we’d find ourselves encountering refreshing lakes and rivers, dense oak hammocks, exciting bustling cities full of connections and opportunities… ultimately a vast ocean that spans from horizon to horizon with His love.

But how? How do we gain a higher spiritual perspective? We can’t push an elevator button and get there.

Here’s the mind-bogglingly beautiful part: we ask. It is His desire to lift us up to where we can see from His view. He wants to give us glimpses. When He does, and we act on those glimpses in trust, we find ourselves in a position to receive more and more of His vantage point until we cease to question it.

What do those glimpses look like? They look like understanding a passage of Scripture more clearly than before - and then applying it to a life situation. They look like seeing another person momentarily as more than the annoyance they have been to you; recognizing them as the loved child that God sees needs encouragement – and then encouraging them. They look like not knowing what to do, praying, and having the quiet but clear voice of God give you an answer – and when you act on it, it moves you forward.

Experience eventually teaches us that His view is richer, more vibrant, farther, and more varied than we could ever imagine. Long experience brings us to a place where we trust His view so completely that ours can be completely fogged in… and still we will walk forward at His direction.
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Lord, lift our eyes to You. We know that we still see dimly, as though through cloudy glass, but to the extent that we can grasp, we ask you to give us Your viewpoint of our world, the people we encounter, and the road we are to travel. Grow our faith as we obey what you show us. Cause us to marvel at the beauty and grandeur of Your plans. 

Way back in elementary school science, I was introduced to the idea that for every big, noticeable object that I saw in my world, there were uncountable numbers of infinitely tiny things on which the form, substance, and characteristics of that object relied for its very existence. I was taught that each of those miniscule things – atoms – were held together by bonds of shared energy in patterns and balances that allowed the objects to maintain their integrity.

It is a law which matter must obey. A break in the energy bond, an imbalance in the pattern, and the object mutates into something other than it was meant to be or disintegrates altogether.

It is a physical law that gives understanding to a spiritual law.

The things that are built in the spiritual realm - relationship, family, community, the body of Christ, the Church – MUST rely on their smallest parts being knit together in proper balance and with the energy or power of the Holy Spirit holding the bonds.

You are one of those atoms. Your immediate family members are the atoms which make up the primary bonds to which you must be connected in order to create a stable structure to then expand out into community and church and worldwide bonds. But it all starts at the smallest level. You and those in your household.

May I give you permission? If you are striving to build a structure of relationship that expands broadly, wait. Pull back if you have overextended your stability. Bring it all the way back down to its smallest, most immediate level and repair the bonds that you find unstable there.

Does it mean letting go of some big ideas? Maybe for a time.

Does it mean admitting that you’ve reached too far out there without the connection to the Spirit to sustain it? Probably.

But that is often what is necessary to build a far-reaching, monumentally impactful structure that will stand the test of time without mutating or dissolving.

Start with yourself. Do you need to solidify your bond to God through private prayer and study? Do you need to spend time allowing Him to take you back to the beginning and remind you of who you are, why you are designed as you are, and what your connections and purposes in the world are meant to be?

Are you solid on an individual level, but find that your connections to your immediate family lack the fruit of the Spirit? Do you see cracks in that very base level of the foundation of your life? Spend time there. Allow God to repair the bonds through the power of His Spirit. Don’t build out in the community until home is solid. You will risk covering up and hiding a fatal flaw in the structure that will eventually come apart when the weight put on it by outside bonds and connections becomes too much.

It’s difficult to admit that we need to be brought back to more basic, building-block things to become effective in our larger goals. We often don’t  want to let go of our deliberately-sought connections that have actually caused an unsightly and ineffective mutation in our purpose and design. We feel a sense of shame, condemnation, and defeat.

Bring the whole mess to the God who knit you together. It is, after all, Him in whom we live and move and have our being. [Acts 17:28] He can help you disassemble the improper ways you’ve connected to others and reconnect you in healthy and productive ways. The One who provided a way to empower you where you are powerless, who connects you to those who will share their energy with you and be strengthened by what you bring to the bond, will build in you and with you the tangible and eternally impactful structures of His Kingdom.