{"id":118,"date":"2017-05-17T21:21:00","date_gmt":"2017-05-17T21:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cherylrostek.com\/index.php\/2017\/05\/17\/the-art-of-rejoicing\/"},"modified":"2017-05-17T21:21:00","modified_gmt":"2017-05-17T21:21:00","slug":"the-art-of-rejoicing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cherylrostek.com\/index.php\/2017\/05\/17\/the-art-of-rejoicing\/","title":{"rendered":"The Art of Rejoicing"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>I have this verse hung beside my bed, \u201cThis is the day that the LORD has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.\u201d*&nbsp; I put it there before the twins were born, because I knew their arrival would bring struggles to rejoice.&nbsp; Those days I did not find much to rejoice in.&nbsp; In fact, I started to question the validity of that verse altogether.&nbsp; Do we have seasons where we can rejoice and others where we have to simply plod along?&nbsp; Only when I entered the enlightment of cancer survivorship did the answer start to be apparent.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>I will NEVER be one to discount the difficulty of motherhood.&nbsp; However, can joy be found daily even in such trying circumstances?&nbsp; I proclaim, \u201cYes!\u201d.&nbsp; Ann Voskamp has written the book <i>One Thousand Gifts<\/i>.&nbsp; I read this a few years ago.&nbsp; Her prose is choppy but poetic and in this book she seeks out the little gifts of joy through out her day.&nbsp; Where do these joy moments or gifts come from?&nbsp; From finding the beauty in the ordinary.&nbsp; <\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The value of beauty and art has been brushed aside in my life for a few years now.&nbsp; I am university-educated in sciences which followed with a career as a Pharmacist.&nbsp; The current model of medical practice is \u201cevidence-based practice\u201d.&nbsp; In lay man terms: make medical decisions based on what good medical studies have proven.&nbsp; This is good, but it does have a propensity to turn people into numbers, if you let it.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>As I processed my diagnosis I began to see the very usefulness and power of beauty in one\u2019s life.&nbsp; Furthermore, I realized how little I had given pause in the most recent years to ponder, to create a gap in the incessant busyness that bombards life.&nbsp; People most certainly are not numbers.&nbsp; They are beautiful creatures created in God\u2019s image, each one of them!<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Indeed, as Voskamp highlights, there is much beauty and value in the rote tasks of the day.&nbsp; In the mundane.&nbsp; Say, for example, in the days of changing diaper after diaper after diaper.&nbsp; Also remember the beauty in the people themselves whom we are surrounded by.&nbsp; Be it our kids as stay at home moms, be it our care-aid for the shut-in senior, be it our friends, be it the cashier at the grocery store.&nbsp; It may seem clich\u00e9, but I speak this truth to my daughter regularly: at the core of all hearts is a sparkling diamond.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>As I explore how to leave a positive and beautiful mark on my sphere of influence, I find myself praying \u201cGod, bring out the beautiful from within my soul and give it words.\u201d&nbsp; Honestly, I long to know how I can also follow my words with action.&nbsp; Yet, I have been reminded by Philip Yancey that there can be great purpose in art and that it can \u201csuspend the relentless passage of time.\u201d**&nbsp; Is that not the breath of fresh air we need in the busy, busy rushing?&nbsp; Art creates space.&nbsp; When I took time to contemplate at my cancer diagnosis I saw the need for beauty; but, oh how we need space to pause.&nbsp; <\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In light of Ann Voskamp, can I assert that art extends beyond the written word, the artist\u2019s paint stroke, the filmmaker\u2019s performance?&nbsp; Is not art present also in the mundane rote tasks of life?&nbsp; Is there not living art in a parent coming up with a creative solution, in the cashier serving respect and a compliment to the customer who belittles and criticizes him, in the daughter in law who holds her mother in law as she breathes her last breaths?&nbsp; <\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Art and beauty are often overlooked.&nbsp; This is certainly to our detriment.&nbsp; For, I have come to see that in order to rejoice in the impossible places where life takes us it is necessary to embrace the artful beauty that abounds in our lives***.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<h4><o:p>&nbsp;<span style=\"font-size: x-small;\"><br \/><\/span><\/o:p><span style=\"font-size: x-small;\">*Psalm 118:24<br \/>**Vanishing Grace, chapter 7, p. 147.<br \/>*** This comes alongside the art of graciously asking for and accepting help so as to truly live in community.&nbsp;<\/span><br \/><\/h4>\n<div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have this verse hung beside my bed, \u201cThis is the day that the LORD has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.\u201d*&nbsp; I put it there before the twins were born, because [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Art of Rejoicing - Cheryl Rostek<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cherylrostek.com\/index.php\/2017\/05\/17\/the-art-of-rejoicing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Art of Rejoicing - Cheryl Rostek\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I have this verse hung beside my bed, \u201cThis is the day that the LORD has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.\u201d*&nbsp; 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