Rhiannon, “Cheerful One” is what my name plaque reads. It was created for me and placed on a wall in our home when I was just a baby. Underneath my name and designated description is Psalm 16:11, and it has been a compass for me throughout my life (four decades so far), keeping me on the path I need and want to take.

Joy is a mystery to me; it’s not a one-size-fits-all experience. Everyone encounters it differently despite the fact that the source of the gift is the same: our gracious God, the Creator of Joy!

For one person, joy might be felt while sitting silently with a good book and a cup of tea. For others, it might be the roar of a crowded house filled with loved ones or a walk in God’s wonderous creation. If you’re anything like me, it’s all of the above!

I have always felt a kinship with joy. I hear the word, and I’m immediately thinking, or even saying aloud, “Joy?! Why, Joy’s my middle name!”

That’s because it literally is! My name is Rhiannon Joy. However, it is also because of my personality and, for a time, my perception of what was expected of me.

As a young child, being joyful was natural. I was a happy, eccentric kid! I loved to sing at the top of my lungs, making up the song as I sang, and I didn’t mind if people looked on in bewilderment. I wore wide-brimmed hats, outrageously eclectic outfits, and a red, curly wig like Little Orphan Annie out in public. I also recall dressing up for school one day in fourth grade as Mary Poppins.

No, it wasn’t Halloween…I just really liked Mary Poppins. All the kids in school thought it was weird. I really didn’t mind, though. I was just happy to be me!

Then, life got really tough, and for many years, I felt like joy was a status I needed to uphold. I was, after all, “Cheerful One.” That can be rough when there’s a whole mess of hard things happening in your life, and you think it’s your duty to smile and say you’re fine. It isn’t anyone’s fault for making me feel that way. It was just a lack of understanding on my part of that scripture underneath my name.

Psalm 16:11 says, “You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy;
at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore,” (NKJV).

Learning to recognize that “fullness of joy” is found in God’s presence alone, and not my grin-and-bear-it approach, has been transformative. The pressure is not on me to muster up a smile and choke down tears. I can run to my Heavenly Father with my hurts and disappointments and find comfort. I can rest in the knowledge that someday in Heaven, I will not have any pain or sorrow to detract from the joy that is mine in Christ.

But what about now? Joy is a fruit of the Spirit, so that fruit should be evident in our lives, but can we experience a foretaste of what the fullness of joy will be like? I believe the answer is yes!

Because of Jesus, we have access to our Heavenly Father. We can experience God’s presence everyday here on earth and enter the realm of where the fullness of joy lives. That’s amazing!

However, it brings up another mystery for me: How do I find the presence of God?

If you’re rolling your eyes because the Sunday School answer is so obvious here, bear with me! I’m going somewhere with this.

Yes, God is Omnipresent, everywhere at once. Absolutely, this is true. However, in my human frailty, I’m pretty easily distracted. He’s here all right, but I can be totally checked out. Therefore, the better question is this:

How can I have a greater awareness of God’s presence?

I’ve had many moments when my awareness was heightened while I was actively seeking Him (reading my Bible, praying, listening to worship music, or researching theology), but I have also been stunned and joyfully surprised by God when I was just going about my day.

God’s presence has been revealed to me in moments of rapturous delight, where joy seemed synonymous with happiness. Other times, it was in the midst of what seemed like my greatest despair, where joy looked and felt like a supernatural, nearly out-of-body experience. I could see the horror and pain of the situation I was in from a perspective that didn’t have me pinned down in the middle of it. I watched with joyful anticipation, expecting God to do something miraculous, because of the overwhelming reality of His presence.

I think it’s very safe to say that God’s presence, as well as our ability to become more of aware it, is a gracious gift.

I believe gifts are meant to be shared! Will you share with me the way God has bestowed this gift on you? I want to hear about how you, walking on the path of life, have experienced joy in God’s presence and the pleasures at His right hand, the place where Jesus is seated!

I will be asking this question around my community and beyond to explore the vast beauty of God’s presence! I will post my findings here in the form of this blog-thing-a-ma-bob. I’ll also be sharing some of my own experiences.

The God of the Universe, the One who is the same yesterday, today, and forever, speaks to each of us uniquely. That’s mind-boggling, so take some time to think about it:

Can you think of a time God graciously made you more aware of His presence and you experienced a foretaste of the fullness of joy?