It’s no secret that Disney movies hold a very special place in my heart. I always loved Disney growing up, but it’s funny to me that I honestly connect and relate more to the modern era of Disney. The Disney of my adulthood.
One of my favorite movies in recent years is Inside Out. This movie could not have been released at a more perfect time in my life. It tells the story of a young girl through her emotions as characters inside of her brain. I went to see Inside Out a few years ago literally weeks before I moved from Louisville, Kentucky, the only place I’d ever lived in my life, to Memphis, Tennessee. In my opinion, this movie perfectly illustrates how life changes affect emotional health. The main character, Riley, has always been a predominantly happy girl. The character Joy essentially controls her brain, with fleeting glimpses of Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust appearing and reacting in her brain when she’s presented with less than ideal situations and the ins and outs of life. But at the end of the day, Joy always takes over, until one day when Riley’s family moves across the country. Her entire life changes, and suddenly, within her brain, Sadness is steering the ship. We essentially watch Riley’s world fall apart as Sadness is in control and leads everything she does. In the end, Riley ultimately matures and adapts to allow more than one emotion control at a time.
I relate profoundly to this illustration of mental health. From the perspective of my life now, I am able to see how sadness was once my dominant emotion. Sadness, anxiety, and depression steered my ship for so much of my life. But what I recognize now is how God flipped the script for me. Where I once lived in a normal state of sadness with phases and glimpses of lightness and joy here and there, God turned me into the opposite. I’ve found a new normal. Joy has the reigns, with sadness, anger, fear and disgust every so often making guest appearances in my overall state of mind.
I’ve lately been trying to pinpoint my biggest change in what has been a year of massive, nonstop change for me. Was it physical? Spiritual? Emotional? But I believe it was a combination of them all, in realizing that God changed my normal state.
The joy of the Lord is my new normal.
I used to see myself as someone who just had to get through my life. Everyday was a struggle. But my perspective has grown to see that I have the beautiful, completely undeserved privilege of living life. I get to worship my Father who created me, and I get to walk the path He’s designed for my life. My heart breaks for my former defective mindset that saw the opposite.
My only desire for my life is for all of it to be a testament to the goodness of the Lord. That’s what I want to be remembered for. A former pessimist turned optimist. Absolutely anything can be redeemed, even my hard heart that walked in darkness for so long. I have always been an emotional person, someone who feels everything right down to my soul. But I never once considered that I could possibly feel joy in those depths too.
“Happiness is a mood, not a destination.”
So many of us spend our lives chasing an emotion that is by design as fleeting as the wind. Human emotion is supposed to change and grow just as our lives change and grow. But what we should instead be chasing is the destination of Jesus. He is the only way to find the true joy we crave, as it only exists in Him. But here’s the best part: reaching the destination of Jesus means you get to walk in His light, His love, His joy, His fulfillment, everything you’ve spent your entire existence chasing, everyday for the rest of your life. It’s an entire life change, the best transformation Tuesday post you could ever make.
It’s my prayer that if you haven’t yet reached this destination, you would lay down whatever is holding you back and ask God to meet you halfway.
