Month 5: The Fruit of JOY
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Galatians 5:22-23
INTRODUCTION
Scripture talks about faithfulness as one of God’s character traits and part of the fruit of the Spirit. For this month we will look at the fruit of gentleness.
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Description text goes hereSome of you might choose to do it all in one sitting. Some of you may do one section per day. Some of you might work through it multiple times. We truly want this to work FOR you! Our prayer is that you’ll feel a sense of joy that comes from spending time in communion with God and then with others as you live out the “practices” you’ll be invited to each week. If your participation ever feels burdensome, then take a break! The Neuma Project exists to assist in your discipleship - both individually and communally with others at FPC, and in your neighborhoods. It doesn’t exist to guilt you into time spent in the word and community. (though if you need a little push, we’re fine to allow this to do that)
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Our vision is that this will be something your family can do together. We will always include a “Neuma Kids” section that you can do with your littles.
We also believe teenage kids can participate in all of the content as well as adults, bringing their own insights and questions. HOWEVER, we are well aware teens + parents + faith conversations can be tricky. For this reason, during Act II on Sunday mornings teens will have the chance to engage this content with each other and their leaders. If all you are able to ‘accomplish’ is a check-in with them on Sunday afternoons, consider it a win! If you are able to sit down and go through the materials together, then you deserve an award and come teach us your ways :)
Start By Stopping
(If you aren’t in a place where you can do that, set a reminder to come back. But please don’t try to cram this in while getting kids ready for school, or replying to emails, or watching Netflix)Don’t talk, don’t move, don’t do anything except breathe. Look around, listen, smell… and be still until it’s uncomfortable. Say a prayer- no agenda, just whatever you want to say directed toward God. If praying isn’t something you do often- give it a shot. Just talk/think/share. In fact, we encourage you to pray aloud! It might feel odd at first, but again, there’s no pressure to do it “correctly.” Just fill God in on your heart & enjoy the quiet.
DON’T HESITATE
–Mary Oliver
If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is not meant to be a crumb.
WATCH:
Spend a few minutes watching this scene from THE MASTERPIECE OF A MOVIE “The Sandlot.” I (Brad) have tried my best not to infuse my personal feelings too much into the Neuma Project materials… but today I get a chance to share my joy and I’m going to take it :)
Grab your Neuma Journal and spend some time with the following prompts in response to the movie clip:
Even if you don’t resonate with the joy in the clip from “The Sandlot,” how do the kids in the movie exhibit joy?
If you had the chance to share a movie clip that represented your childhood experience of joy - what would it be?
Ross Carper
Storytelling:
Joy In the Dark
I've felt like I've been in the dark for a while. Maybe I’m not the only one. Maybe it’s the season: short days, 7 degrees. More likely it’s the fear and doubt and conflict permeating what seems like everything. Many of the people I walk alongside—former refugee and immigrant friends—are carrying deep burdens. Worries about loved ones still in danger, uncertainty about when/if people will be able to reunite. Fear of being targeted. The struggle to make a new home in an unfamiliar place. The weight of starting over with so many unknowns. Hurtful words coming from fellow school kids, perhaps parroting them from emboldened family members. There is grief and there is exhaustion. Some anger. I haven’t been thinking much about joy.
Then this past week, my family received some. On Saturday night, we had dinner with a wonderful family of five, Rohingya people from South Asia. They arrived in Spokane less than a year ago as refugees, fleeing unimaginable hardship. Through Feast World Kitchen, where I serve as Co-Executive Director, we connected with them through our Table Time drop-in program. Their children's school had reached out to us for help—it had come to light that the family found themselves homeless after a misunderstanding with a landlord. They had been staying in a family shelter—a safe place run by a great local organization, but without much privacy.
These five were desperate to find an apartment… any apartment where they could be together, in warmth and safety, with just their family. Through help from an interpreter and in the tone of the English we could pick up, we could sense the father’s urgency. The only one we could help them find was a simple one-bedroom unit in an old cut-up house: very modest but clean, partially furnished, and within the budget of mom and dad’s part-time jobs. With the help of many hands, they moved in last week during flurries of fine, powdery snow.
Even in the midst of such upheaval, their warmth and hospitality shone through. After interacting throughout the week helping them get settled, they invited me over. No, they insisted on having my entire family come for a visit on Saturday. What we found when we arrived was, well, a feast: borrowed card tables set up in the living room and soon packed with plates of steaming biryani rice, spicy noodles, curried chicken, even salmon. My daughters gravitated toward the fruit—jackfruit, mango, dragon fruit, guava—so much sweetness and vibrant color. There was laughter, gestures, and the kind of connection that doesn’t require many shared words. My 7-year-old girl took less than one minute to join the smaller kids playing and running around, chasing a remote-control car. A couple of times, the mother, whom I’ll call Shuktini, repeated, “I’m so happy. I’m so happy.”
In that moment, joy was seated around the table with us. The Spirit was bearing fruit even brighter than the specialty items the family had sourced from Saw’s Oriental Market (a local spot owned by another beloved family we’ve come to know). We could taste and see it.
Joy isn’t the absence of struggle. It isn’t the erasure of sorrow. But it breaks in, like the first rays of light. It reminds us why we keep leaning into this work of mutual hospitality, why we continue to show up for each other. Psalm 30:5 reminds me, weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning. I see it reflected in moments like this—around a shared table, in the eyes of a mother who has found safety for her children, in the laughter of friends who just weeks ago were strangers. In the moments the father called me his brother, hugged me, and even fed me with a spoon when he felt I wasn’t eating quite enough!
Welcoming the stranger is sacred work. It’s learning how to give and receive, to welcome and be welcomed. And it is filled with moments of grace, of healing, of joy. Whether it’s alongside neighbors who have always lived across the street, or those who just came from across the world, may we keep showing up, open to connection around a table or a walk around the block. And may we keep watch for—and thank God for—the glimpses of joy that finally break in through the dark.
RESPONDING TO SCRIPTURE
Settle in and get quiet. Take a few deep breaths. Ask the Spirit to illuminate the scriptures for you.
After you’ve slowed yourself down with silence and breath, read scriptures below.
(If you’d like to use your own Bible please do! If you’d like an online version from the NRSV you can find one HERE)
Then slowly work through the prompts below.
Use your Neuma Journal to write down what comes to your heart and mind.
WATCH
Take 4 minutes to watch this Bible Project explainer on how joy shows up in Scripture. The narrators can move pretty fast in this video so please feel free to hit pause if you are taking notes or rewind if you want to make sure you catch all of the information!
Scripture has many examples (as seen in the video) of the source of joy. Did any of the examples resonate with you? If so, which ones? If not, where do you find joy in your life?
Have you ever heard of people experiencing “joy in the wilderness?” What was their story? Do you have a story of joy in the wilderness?
The video states, “Now this doesn’t mean you ignore or suppress your sorrow. That’s not healthy or necessary. Paul often expressed his grief…. as he acknowledged his pain he also made a choice to trust Jesus. This is very different from the trite advice to turn that frown upside down.”
Near the end the video says that “Christian joy is a profound decision of faith and hope in the power of Jesus’ own life and love.” Do you agree that joy is a decision?
We are trying something new this month with the above ‘word study’ video on Chara: “Joy.” However, if you want to immerse yourself in the teachings of the Bible on joy here are verses and portions you can read.
We don’t recommend you simply read the verse that contains the word “joy” but that you read the verses before and after to see the context of which joy is described.
Psalm 105:43
Luke 10:17
Romans 15:13
1 Thessalonians 2.19-20
John 15:1-11
Philippians 1:9-11
Psalm 119
1 Peter 1:6
Philippians 4:12
Neuma Kids
Neuma Kids Discussion Prompts
1) What is regular happiness? What makes you happy?
2) What happens to regular happiness when something bad or hard happens?
3) What does Psalm 16:11 say about Joy?
4) How can we have Joy event when bad and hard things happen?
5) When someone is filled with the Joy of the Lord and something bad or hard happens, what happens to there Joy?
6) Even when a Christian is sad because something bad or hard is happening, can they still have the Joy of the Lord?
SPIRITUAL PRACTICE: JOY
Each month during The Neuma Project you will be invited to try an experiment. Some of the experiments will be really simple, while others will stretch you out of your comfort zone. Just like an experiment at school, we want you to try them all. There’s no judgment if it doesn’t work, and since we’re all learning together, no one is an expert!
PRAY AS YOU GO
Pray As You Go is a podcast that provide daily meditation sessions using a mix of music, scripture and short reflective questions. They are between 10 and 13 minutes long, allowing for a quick, but focussed time of prayer. Continue the journey with a time of silence and journaling to see what stirred up in your reflection time.
How to use
Jourdan found this particular prayer and wanted to share it with us as we immerse ourselves in the Fruit of Joy. Whether you listen on your phone while taking a walk, through your computer speakers at your desk, or aloud together as a Neuma Group we pray this will center you in what the Spirit has to offer us.
You can find the audio prayer HERE.
PRACTICING JOY
This will be pretty simple this month - at least in theory!
Step 1:
Pay attention. Start a practice (truly, do it!) where you notice moments where you experience joy. Write them down. Look at your list each day before bed. And look at it again each morning when you wake up. Pay attention to joy.
Step 2:
Invite someone else into your joy. After a week or two of paying attention to joy, look at your list and see if any of those experiences can be shared. Step into faithful courageousness and invite someone into an experience. Invite a neighbor to join you for a walk. Invite a new friend at church to cook a meal with you. Invite the kids next door to share in the joys of your baking by delivering a plate of cookies. You get the idea - Invite someone else into your joy.
SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION
If you had the chance to share a movie clip that represented your childhood experience of joy - what would it be?
What struck you most while reading Ross’s reflection on finding joy in the darkness?
Have you ever heard of people experiencing “joy in the wilderness?” What was their story? Do you have a story of joy in the wilderness?
Near the end the Bible Project video it says that “Christian joy is a profound decision of faith and hope in the power of Jesus’ own life and love.” Do you agree that joy is a decision?
What’s next for your Neuma Group? Let the holidays happen and get back together next Gathering Sunday (March 9)? Meet up for coffee before worship sometime? Host a “Spring is Coming” potluck with your neighbors invited?
Songs for Reflection
Please use these songs to supplement your time this week. Listen as you pray or as you drive to work. Listen as you respond to the reflection prompts or as you do homework. Listen as you get ready for bed at night or don’t listen at all!