cartwheels.

Cartwheels = Joy.

I'll explain.

Some of you, if you're like me, can't really do a cartwheel. I can hardly do a summersault without getting dizzy. 

I'm not kidding.

Whatever happened to the days I could flip upside down, spin around in circles, and roll down hills without losing my cookies?

Things change, I guess.  

I didn't associate cartwheels with joy until last week. It was part of the crazy adventure last Friday. You can read more about that here if you haven't already. Looking for a reason to believe that God speaks and truly wants to love us? Then check it out. It's a long story, but totally worth the read. 

After passing a very bad accident on the way to the cities, we were overcome with sadness and grief. It's hard to describe what shifted in the air. But something definitely shifted.

A few miles more down the road, we passed a baseball field full of children. They were playing and throwing around a huge ball to one another. A girl wearing red out in left field caught my eye. Out of nowhere, she did a cartwheel. It brought a smile to my face in the midst of a heaviness that we were feeling after the accident scene. Something shifted again in the air, this time in the direction of Hope.

I really don't think this girl was disinterested in the throw-a-super-giant-ball-at-each-other-game. Who wouldn't enjoy that?!

Although I don't really know everything she was thinking in the moment she gracefully rolled herself over, I do like to think she just had something inside her that compelled her to release some goodness and joy out there on that green playing field on a sun filled, fall afternoon.

I like to think she just couldn't help it.

When you've got the joy and you are full of it to the point of overflowing, it's hard not to do a cartwheel. Or laugh uncontrollably. Or speak words of Life and Hope. Or serve humbly. Or forgive. Or honor one another. 

You might be asking, "But, what about the times when trial and pain are all around me? What about the times I pass by a horrendous accident on the road of life? It's hard to do a cartwheel then."

Then hold onto Joy and lean into God's Truth in the midst of challenge with such intensity that you leave an imprint in Him. He's the source of joy. When you press into Him, it'll absorb right into you.

Then release it to the world around you...

Do a cartwheel.