Do you remember?

The gentle comfort of water cradling your face, muffling sounds, embracing you in wet warmth. Like a womb.

Hair floating mermaid-like. Whoosh, whoosh. Held, light, no cares. Joyful.

Yesterday, I was at a local lake with my daughters and grandkids. In between digging sand traps for minnows, eating watermelon in the water and playing keep away with the rinds, and trying to talk the toddlers into holding their noses and putting their face in the water—I swam out a bit and floated.

The buoyancy eased my stiff, sore neck. With little effort I lay on the surface of the lake, brilliant blue and towering, snow white clouds above.

Embraced. Such gentle joy.

We are embraced by love and sustained by joy. 

The fruit of walking in this truth is winsome living.

This is the message of the Gospel—God’s loving embrace demonstrated by salvation through Jesus. And His sustaining power in our lives, the joy of our salvation.

God’s love and joy make all the difference. They are the literal means of abundant life. The sure promises that hold our hearts and strengthen our arms in both the day-to-day and the crises of life.

But why winsome? It’s an old English word, and it literally means win {joy}-some.

I’m not talking about circumstantial, bubbly, fragile joy, but deep, strong, messy, right-here joy. In these circumstances, good or bad. Joy that not only brings happiness on our good days but sustains us through our worst.

Joy. It’s not just an emotion, but a way of life.

Winsome living is . . . living life embraced by love and sustained by joy.

For the next few months, I’ll be exploring what winsome living looks like. What does it mean to be embraced by love and sustained by joy?

I’ll post each Wednesday and share with you what I’m learning as I walk in these truths. Next week we will focus on God’s loving embrace.

Until then, my prayer is . . .

that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
may have strength to comprehend with all the saints
what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge,
that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
~Ephesians 3:17-19

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Every Wednesday, I’m exploring what winsome living looks like. What does it mean to be embraced by love and sustained by joy?

Here all the posts in this series:
Why Winsome?
Embraced by Love
Sustained by Joy
Winsome Living

 

Photo credit: Hilary Hyland Photography

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