In the summer of 1984, my parents sent me off to camp. I was nine years old, and there are a few things from that week I will never forget.
I remember crying. Call it a combination of homesickness and making an error in a softball game, but I broke down. Intending to console me, my counselor picked me up and carried me off the field—making me even more embarrassed in front of my cabin mates.
I also remember not showering the whole week. My folks didn’t appreciate this on the two-hour ride home.
But I also remember a little song they taught us at camp, and I was thinking recently of the great truth it contains. Before we learned the tune, they explained the song’s background: while Great Britain has a national flag (the Union Jack), the Queen of England had her own flag, the Royal Standard, which was flown wherever she was in residence.
So, if the Queen were at Buckingham Palace, you would’ve known it, because her flag would’ve been flying high above the grounds.
Ok, so here’s the little song we learned at camp: Joy is the flag flown high from the castle of my heart, from the castle of my heart, from the castle of my heart; Joy is the flag flown high from the castle of my heart for the King is in residence there!
This means that if Jesus is ruling in your life, if He is Sovereign in the castle of your heart, others are going to know it because of the joy you show. We as Christians must not focus on or add to the negativity around us. But, instead, like the psalm writer, let us be “glad with the joy” of God’s presence (Psalm 21:6)! Let others see God in your life by the joy you have in Him.
