And here’s my embarrassing truth: Gratitude has always felt a little like a box to check off, more duty than delight. For years, I’ve checked off the box faithfully knowing it was vital for mental, spiritual, and emotional health, but honestly, it felt a bit like taking vitamins.

But interactive gratitude, the first stage in Immanuel Journaling, has surprised me with its power. It’s been like discovering a key I didn’t know existed to enter into deeper delight with God. A key to a door to mutual delight. Did you read or watch Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett as a kid? Think discovering the key under hanging vines of low expectations and turning it in a rusty old lock that didn’t appear promising but opening the door to security, the loveliest walled safety, to a profusion of beauty, to ongoing revelation.

And could anything be more important than joy and delight in a time period perforated with a steady influx of grief and anxiety? Who couldn’t handle more delight in 2020?