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For starters, my paradigm was recently shifted in regards to how I pronounce the word paradigm. Apparently I had heard or decided as a child that the word paradigm was to be pronounced pear-a-dee-um. In talking about paradigm shifts with my husband recently, he (kindly) announced, “you know the word is said pair-a-dime, right?” To which I replied, “No, it’s not!” which of course launched a debate that involved looking up the word in an online dictionary, studying the phonetic symbols to the right, resulting in a paradigm shift of how I will pronounce the word from now on.
This recent incident got me thinking through how I’ve experienced paradigm shifts throughout my life. What have the instigating factors been during the times my way of thinking or doing has been turned on its head?
Friction.
I know it sounds weird. Friction is basically the resistance one object encounters when moving against another. The times I have experienced needed, necessary, beneficial, life-giving paradigm shifts are when I’m in real, genuine, interacting, relational proximity to God and to people who are striving to live by truth. In order to experience the friction that will lead to a paradigm shift, I must be close enough for rubbing.
One such shift in my life has surrounded the idea of joy. Something we all want. Something some of us seem to naturally be inclined to less than others – me being one of those people.
In a season where I chose to make it a habit of spending time with God reading something, talking to Him about something and listening to Him at some point daily, God began to weave a pattern through the things I was reading and the things I was hearing, both in sermons and through the Holy Spirit. God began to show me verses like, “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, NIV),” and “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4, NIV). He began to shift my brain to hear that joy is not something that happens to you; it is something you choose.
We choose joy by giving thanks. I choose joy by finding things I can praise God for even in the midst of sadness, stress, 100-degree heat and tedious tasks. I choose to praise God for a flower in the middle of a parking lot, for a beautiful sunrise, for air conditioning, for a moment to sit, for His goodness, for His patience with me, for love, for anything and everything I can find.
To praise God, to rejoice in something He has given – all the time – brings the surprise of joy. What a delight that friction, being close enough to God for Him to rub against my paradigm, could lead to joy!