{"id":7079,"date":"2021-02-15T12:14:15","date_gmt":"2021-02-15T18:14:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.steveblaising.com\/content\/?p=7079"},"modified":"2023-07-16T09:07:18","modified_gmt":"2023-07-16T14:07:18","slug":"five-rhythms-of-joy-energize-your-soul-every-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.steveblaising.com\/content\/five-rhythms-of-joy-energize-your-soul-every-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Rhythms of Joy Energize Your Soul Every Day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

God created a rhythmic world of joy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every day an ensemble of people, creatures, sounds, color and smell surround us with essential ingredients for unshakable joy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Unshakable
Life is good\/Frank McKenna\/Unsplash<\/mark><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Play these rhythms and energize your soul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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Joy rhythm #1: Live as if<\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

One of America’s great African American singers, Tom Tipton, lived an extraordinary life of joy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He gave us the recipe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Live as if.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 1940s, Tom, age 8, worked shining shoes by the U.S. Capitol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He heard about an Easter Egg Roll for kids on the White House lawn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When he showed up, the guard said he didn’t belong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tom ran home to his mother and told her what happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Junior, don’t worry. Just love everybody. Just be the best shoeshine boy you can be.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, Tom, at age 8, learned to live as if<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He ran to the iron fence and said loudly, “One of these days I’ll be back and I will go inside that big White House and they will call me Mr. Tipton.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And they did, over and over again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He sang in front of presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton while making friendships with many leaders who called him “Mr. Tipton.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Joy
Tom Tipton with Vice President Hubert Humphrey<\/mark> 1968 <\/mark><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Joy rhythm #2: Smell and taste<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Every morning I wake up to a smooth cup of coffee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smell and taste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not a big deal?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lose these from Coronavirus<\/a> and you realize these are gifts from God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

COVID-19 choked my smell and taste for two weeks and I came to appreciate this . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Mindfulness of the body is awareness of the taste and smell of this moment.”<\/strong> Steve Hagen<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Enjoy everything you taste and smell every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joy reminder #3: Birds<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Hummingbirds and vultures live in the desert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vultures live off the dead. The past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, hummingbirds live off blossoms. The present. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Hummingbirds
Hummingbirds savor blossoms\/James Wainscoat\/Unsplash<\/mark><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Each bird finds what its looking for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And so do we.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joy comes from the direction we look<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to<\/strong> your life?”<\/strong> Mat. 6: 26-27<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I thank my son Jack for giving me a hummingbird feeder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, I enjoy watching hummingbirds doing their rhythms of joy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joy reminder #4: Floating<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Whether bathing or floating, we connect with God’s joy in water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I love a hot bath as much as floating on a beautiful lake, don’t you?<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Joy
Kate, Steve and Jack Blaising floating at Lake Athens\/Jack Blaising<\/mark><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The Bible refers to water as a metaphor for God’s Spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, \u201cLet anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.<\/strong>” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.<\/strong> John 7:37-39<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Spend time every week in and around the life changing effects of water.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joy rhythm #5: Walking<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

If there\u2019s one thing that kept me joyful during the first lockdown of 2020, it was walking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While everyone was freaking about getting infected at the gym, I walked by . . .<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"The
Highland Park, TX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n