The road from guilt to joy doesn’t look like one we can travel. It looks bombed out, rutted. There are limbs down, blind turns, and no directions. Well, at first anyway. Then we take a step forward and we see things weren’t as bad as we made them out.

Another few paces and that obstacle we thought was going to stop us turns out to be much smaller, a hiccup, really. The blind turn brings surprising relief and before we know it, we’ve ventured far from our guilt. Suddenly, we start noticing the wildflowers along the path… and the bird song.

We are still walking the same path, but oh, how it looks different. Some space, some time, some acceptance of who we really are. A lot of God’s forgiveness making us remember he wants to walk with us. These are movements toward joy. Yes, it’s possible.