Joy Manifested in a 600-Word Article

There's a guiding hand that wants us to live joyfully. (Photo by YourCityPromdi)

This has been a crazy week--being sick, getting into back-to-back meetings, and generally feeling like I don't have any more head space for things that give me joy.

But this evening, I just want to share one thing I just realized I'm grateful for. Two weeks in, I have already made contributions to issues of The Feast's bulletin.

That doesn't sound like something to be happy and proud about, considering that writing is what I do for a living, right? But hear me out.

I've been part of the bulletin team for about a year now. But for one reason or another--I get asked to travel out, or some event needs to be managed, or I have to attend to the tutorial center or family--I managed to submit only one (hastily put together) 500-word article. I was so bad at contributing that I was mistakenly categorized as inactive.

I was appalled at myself.

I joined this team, because I wanted to offer something back to the Lord. Scroll up two paragraphs, my dear reader, and tell me: is that the kind of work I should be offering to God?

So, anyway, this opportunity to turn in better quality work was not by my own design, but by coincidence. Perhaps, Divine Providence.

One morning last week, I was running late and decided to take a GrabShare to work. Lo and behold, my co-Grabber that day is a faith groupmate, who by then had agreed to head the bulletin ministry. She asked me about my status, and after realizing the mistake, we agreed she'll put me back into active rotation and I said I'll try to make myself more available to writing articles. My one request then was to give me ample lead time to work, because my schedule can get really packed with so many other stuff and I want to make sure I have a built-in buffer to meet article deadlines.

Lo and behold. I was able to attend the planning session and was inspired by at least two things that eventually made it into the last two issues of our bulletin.

This evening, I just submitted another article--my last for the quarter. I was proud of the quality of that work. I was joyful after I turned it in. And I am excited over what I produced, excited to see it go to print.

I believe there is a guiding hand that wants us to live joyfully. This evening, it manifested in one 600-word feature.