As Charlie Peacock sang, “Yellow Is A Happy Color.”

I am hoping you are choosing to let bravery define you rather than your pain. I am hoping that you are living brave decision to brave decision to brave decision, even making those little brave decisions to get out of bed in the morning. Or making the decision to stop numbing the pain.

This is also amazingly true. You also get a lot of joy right now. Our brain does this “funny” thing. If we numb our pain, we also numb our joy. This was a finding in Dr. Brene’ Brown’s research. I do write a lot about my pain. Which means there is also a lot of joy to share. Your life also has a lot of joy. It really does.

Yellow is happy color. We are declaring today a yellow day.

It is mid-July. Summer is still here! And because it is mid-July I still have weeks of summer left!! That is yellow.

The sun is yellow. It is yellow.

Summer means times at oceans, lakes, Chesapeake Bay, anything that gets me to a beach. A beach is definitely yellow.

Summer means I can wear my favorite clothes. I love all of my summer wardrobe. If I can dress extra cute, I will feel better and approach the day better no matter what pain is going on. It is just clothes yet they do make me feel better.

My dog is yellow. He is a cute little rescue who has overcome quite a lot in his short years with us. Including nearly being killed by another dog 18 months after we adopted him. That was traumatic! More traumatic for me than Louie or so it seems. He continues to be this grateful happy dog who is continually underfoot begging to be with us for every moment. Louie really is this ridiculously cute—and does not bark.

Grandkids are yellow. Even my prayers for them are colored in yellow. Thank God I can enjoy the joy of them!

Psalm 18 is yellow for me. The Bible is yellow. The Bible provides me reminders of truth that get me out of my funk so I can lead my brain and tell me that this pain is my beginning.

Major League Baseball is yellow. Mostly because baseball is played mostly in the summer time and summer is yellow. Sports is the love language of my marriage and of my family, both my birth family and with our now our grown boys. The bonus yellow is that my Minnesota Twins are one of the surprise winning teams this season. The Twins winning doesn’t make sense so my foreboding joy of being a Minnesota sports fan tells me that we will soon crash to our normal loserness. Meanwhile I get to watch winning baseball in summer time.

Summer camp ministry is yellow. So many many memories of faith happen at summer camps. Lifetime memories. Whether you are a camper or a camp staffer or the camp speaker like me.

What is yellow about your day?

I must interrupt this happy yellow song right now to call out this lie that may be brewing inside your head. Who are you to be joyful? And/or you don’t deserve joy.

Stop.

James 1:2 says Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. You get the pain and the joy. Romans 5:3 says We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. Repeat. You get the pain and the joy. Psalm 30:11 says You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing. You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy. Repeat.

Joy is what we get in our pain. Real true joy. Not numbed joy in your numbed life. You get those moments when you laugh so silly over something so silly because real joy leaked out. Or those moments when you are beautifully overwhelmed at something you see in nature. This kind of joy, The Lord is my strength and shield. I trust him with all my heart. He helps me, and my heart is filled with joy. I burst out in songs of thanksgiving. Psalm 28:7. This is yellow. Isn’t it in these times of yellow that the most beautiful writing happens or the most touching songs are written? This is because pain and joy are alive together.

Pain and joy are alive together in your life. What is yellow about your day?