Category Archives: Joy

Homecoming

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Have you burned your bridges to God?  Wandered too far?  Lots of people feel that way. But Jesus taught this truth:. If you want to go back, you cannot have gone too far from God.  Maybe what really is causing you to stay away is the fear you would not be received well. Jesus understood why people feel that way. That is partly why He told the story of the Prodigal Son.  To help us come to grips with God’s astonishing love and grace.

It’s easy to miss the passionate details He included.  He didn’t merely say, “The Father was glad his son returned.”. Take some time to consider what He did say, and to imagine God the Father receiving you home like this:

And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.  (Luke 15:20)

Jesus was not exaggerating. What are you waiting for?

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. (​James 4:8a)

Practice Makes Perfect

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Dad installed a chinup bar in a doorway and used it everyday.  He challenged me to a contest when I was visiting.  I was amazed at his stamina but still beat him – hey, I was 30 years younger.  But now, at the age he was, there’s no way I could measure up to what he did then.  Unless I practiced.  The training regimen of olympic athletes is scary intense.  They punish themselves with every greater challenges til they know they can push through them.

In a similar way, we are encouraged to accept the various trials of life as opportunities to train our faith and develop our capacity to patiently push through.  

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.  (James 1:2-4)

To test a diving board, you jump on it, tentatively at first but then with greater and greater force.  If you can’t break it then you know it will hold you.  You trust it  Same thing with faith; you jump on it to know if it will hold.  You test faith with trials.  As you learn your faith will hold, you become more able to endure life’s trials with steadfastness.  You become “perfect and complete,” in the sense that you are “good to go” in the faith department.  The faith is not in your own toughness but in Jesus’ ability to hold you safe, no matter what.  Like this:

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.  (Romans 8:38-39)

Ice Cream

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Despite how your GPS led you down a dead ended dirt road, the day is coming when cars will know how to take you from Albuquerque to Alberta.  Or to the store to pick up milk.  But automated controls on cars will be no substitute for what happens when you go for a drive in the country.  Computers won’t be able to spontaneously pull over at an ice cream stand, or slow down to enjoy a view.  That kind of driving takes a real person behind the wheel, one who can think and feel and decide.

That’s what makes God’s decision to change how He directs our paths so exciting.  He began by telling us His laws, His rules..  But rules are clumsy guides.  Think of the toy car that heads in some random directon until it runs into an obstacle, turns and heads out in another direction.  A life lived by rules resembles that.  You crash into some “thou shalt not,” dust yourself off and change course.  But God’s new arrangement is to come live within us and interactively steer us.

And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone [i.e. a dead, unresponsive heart]  from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh [one that is alive and responsive]. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. (Ezkiel 36:26-27  with my explanations added)

When God’s Spirit is behind the wheel, instead of robotically going from point A to point B in life, we can stop for ice cream, so to speak.  We can spontaneously enjoy the ride while safely remaining in the center of His will. As Paul wrote in Galatians 5:18,  “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under  [you don’t need to be controlled by] the law.”

How did God accomplish this new system of control?  Through Jesus.  He came and did everything necessary to install God’s Spirit in us.  Trust Him and enjoy the ride!

Eager for Beauty

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When the Olympics begin, make a point of watching the faces and body posture of the athletes who are waiting for their chance to compete.  When a beautiful dive has been executed, you can see admiration on their faces, but, more than that, determination to do better.  When a record has been broken, the runners waiting want to break it better.  They are eager for the chance.

Jesus came, according to Paul’s letter to Titus, and:

14 …”gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.”   (Titus 2:14b)

The word translated, good, literally means “beautiful.”  When people have been “redeemed from all wickedness,” the things they are eager to do are truly beautiful.  Not just inoffensive, or plain vanilla, but strikingly beautiful!  You know the video on the ‘net of the basketball team who rallied around the boy with special needs and gave him a chance to score the winning basket?  That kind of beauty.  The kind that is seen through a tear of inspiration.

Craftsmen are eager to “do what is beautiful.”  They are not content with ordinary.  They want people to experience an uplifting thrill.  Jesus had it in mind for His people to be craftsmen of beautiful things.  I wish Christian films “out-Spielberged” Spielberg instead of putting up with simplistic plots and mediocre acting.  I wish Christian music transported people to new heights.  I wish everything done to honor Jesus’ great love and grace would be known for astonishing beauty.

According to Paul, so does Jesus…

More is More

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In “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” the people who had seen the extraterrestrial vehicles in the sky, gathered on the hill in wonder and amazement, hoping to see more.  You should experience that attitude when you attend a church: people who have glimpsed a beautiful and powerful mystery and want more.  Sadly, many churches seem to know all the answers, to have everything tied up in neat bundles.  They have lost their taste for mystery.  Stay away!  Those so-called churches are dangerous; they have died.  A pastor who considers himself to be an expert has not encountered God.

When Paul encountered Jesus, it blew his mind so thoroughly he couldn’t see for days.  Before that, he was an expert.  After that, he wrote,

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
1 Corinthians 13:12

Just One

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If you had to pick just one rule to live by, one rule to teach your kids, which one would you choose?  Jesus picked this one:

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.  (Matthew 22:37-38)

God is not emotionally needy; He is not hurt or impoverished by our failure to love Him.  So what’s the deal?  Why is this the most important one?  Let’s start with this: If we could truly wrap our minds around the reality that we have personally been created by an infinitely superior Being, Who designed and created the universe, Who knows us, cares for us and loves us, if we could hold that truth present in our consciousness, our natural response would be wholehearted love for Him.  Anything less would be petulant rebellion.  

Presumably, as we obey the command to love God with our all, it has the effect of bringing us closer to the full realization of Who He is and how He loves us.  Aligned with that truth, we are more in tune with the rest of His design.

But how would such love be expressed?  A Hallmark moment wouldn’t suffice. As we are drawn into a closer relationship of love with God, it spills over and is naturally expressed in our love for others.  That is why Jesus added this:

And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”  (Matthew 22:39-40)

Simply put, if you could truly obey the first command, you would find yourself obeying the second, and would not need to worry about all the others.  

Let Go and Jump

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Here’s a riddle:

For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.   (Matthew 16:25)

Jesus spoke that riddle as an explanation for an equally tough statement:

“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.  (Matthew 16:24)

But what may seem unreasonable and harsh, is actually an invitation to wild adventure.  The thing about adventure, however, is it is unavailable to those afraid to leave the house.  You can’t experience adventure by watching it on TV.  You must leave the trappings of security behind and dare to trust your guide.

A monk named Brother Charles understood this best and wrote this prayer:

My God, I abandon myself into your hands; do with me what you will.  Whatever you may do, I thank you; I am ready for all, I accept all.  Let only your will be done in me, and in all your creatures – I wish no more than this, O Lord.  Into your hands I commend my soul; I offer it to you with all the love of my heart, for I love you Lord, and so need to give myself, to surrender myself into your hands, without reserve, and with boundless confidence, for you are my God.

I get the image of a tandem skydive, holding on to Jesus.  You gotta jump…

All the Difference

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Nobody told us. Five minutes later and the hospital would not have billed us for that whole day. But saving money was the furthest thing from our minds as we prepared for the birth of our first child. When our daughter was born, nothing could have diminished our joy and thankfulness, not even being billed a whole day for 5 minutes. There was new life in our family and new hope.

Thankfulness changes the game. Instead of focusing on the bad stuff, your thoughts are filtered through appreciation for what’s good. It’s the old “half-full” instead of “half-empty” attitude.

For those who follow Jesus, it is no mere mental trick. Our thankfulness is grounded in the new life born in us, the very life of Jesus.  New life comes with absolute confidence for the long haul.  Our cups, more than half-full, run over!

Here’s the whole quote we have considered in three posts. God’s desire is for you to enjoy each of these.

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.  (1Thessalonians 5:16-18)

A Missing Piece

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You may have noticed I left something out.  Paul said, “Rejoice always,” but that’s not all he said.  It’s risky to pick a couple of words out of the Bible without checking to see what they mean in context.  But, hey, you are busy; you don’t have time for long blog posts.  That’s my excuse – it’s your fault. 

But what else did he say?  Part of it is this next phrase:
“Pray continually…”  (1 Thessalonians 5:17)

Continually?  Really?  It’s bad enough Paul wants me to be rejoicing all the time but now he wants me to go through life with my eyes closed and my hands folded?  Obviously, not. More like, “Keep the lines of communication with God open all the time.”  You are driving down the highway and see someone parked with his emergency blinkers going.  Should you stop?  Ask the One Who knows.  Like that.  He said He would take up residence with you (John 14:23), so don’t miss out.  Ask. 

As Jesus taught,  “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”  (Matthew 7:7-8)

Prayer doesn’t have to be formally announced (“Lettuce spray”).  You can simply check in with a quick question or request.  When you get in the habit, this kind of prayer is a real source of clarity and strength.  It’s part of how and why Paul said to “rejoice always.” 

But not all.  I left something out again.  Maybe next time…

Fattitude

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“We’re in a tight spot!”  The barn where they were hiding was on fire. Cops with machine guns were perforating the place and George Clooney, in his role in “O Brother Where Art Thou?”,  looked like he was having the time of his life, thrilled to be in a “tight spot.”   Appealing, that.  Like skiers who enjoy the black slopes, whooping with excitement, even when they wipe out.  They are doing better than those who agonize over every turn with grim anxiety.

I got thinking about the look in George Clooney’s eye when I read this simple verse from 1 Thessalonians:

Rejoice always…”  (1Thessalonians 5:16)

In our day, that reads like mental pablum, advice from a timid Sunday School teacher who can’t handle life.  But the guy that wrote that advice had been in more than a few tight spots.  He’d been beaten, starved, shipwrecked, imprisoned and pursued by mobs of vicious killers.  And, he was writing to people facing violent persecution.  Paul had a gleam in his eye on the black slopes.  He knew the power of enjoying the thrill of the hills and spills, no matter what.

But it’s not that he was a reckless adrenalin junkie.  Paul knew God had sent him into those tight spots because they were ripe with opportunity.  He knew God knew.  When tempted to complain and feel sorry for himself, he knew how much better it was to rejoice.

Next time you are in a tight spot, call to mind the look in George Clooney’s eye, and the powerful advice from Paul.  Rejoice.  Always.