Joy 365
So, I was on my home the other day and I have found a new way to make sure that I get my daily devotional time in, I put sermons on my iPod or on a CD and with the wonderful technology of MP3s I can now have hours worth of sermons in my car at any given time, but that is not what I am talking about today.
I was listening to a sermon by Erwin McManus (whom you will find that I listen to a lot) titled “Joy 365”. This is a phenomenal sermon that spoke to me right where I am at in life. It made me realize a few things. The main premise of the sermon was that what bring us joy? Is it new cars, houses or the things we don’t think about? The joy of the Lord is my strength, this is the main point. McManus talks about how he went through rough times where he had no money, no place to really live and he and his wife slept on the floor, but he still had joy because the things in life that mattered were the things closest to him, in this case his wife. I had to step back and ask myself, what brings me joy? At this current juncture in life, I am not financially sound and things are not going well for us. Sure I have a good job and so does Jessica, but as a result of certain circumstances in life we are now facing some bad financial situations, I honestly have felt like a failure as a husband and father. Its hard not being able to say, “hey lets go out to dinner tonight, as a family” this is a luxury we can not afford right now, and it hurts me. But I had to ask myself, what is really bringing me joy? What am I putting my hope in? where am I finding my strength? My joy wasn’t being found in my relationship with God and with my relationship with Jessica and my daughter Dani. For a period of time, I became a somewhat bitter person. Things got hard and I retreated into my shell to avoid “hurting others” in return, I did just what I was trying to avoid. I hurt the ones I loved. Well, I came to the sound realization that I needed to refocus my life and that I needed to rework my relationship with God and that I needed to get back on track with that whole thing, cuz lets face it, it is really something that is very important. It is what has gotten me through the roughest times in my life. I had to stand back and realize that I have some amazing things to be thankful for.
My joy doesn’t come from things that I don’t have, I mean no matter how much money I have no matter how big my house is, no matter what luxuries I have, I will not be happy if that is what I am focusing on to “be happy”. I am realizing that I am going through a trial of sorts. Life is not easy there have been nights that I lay in bed and rack my brain trying to figure out things. How will I pay the bills, how will I afford groceries, the usual things. But Jessica reminded me that things are well, not as bad as they seem, at night, I still have a comfortable bed to come home to and I still have a beautiful wife and wonderful daughter. These are the things that God has blessed me with. I have been weak, I have worried a lot, but it was because the joy of the Lord was not my strength, I feel that a little but, day by day that is returning to me, the joy and the passion, and the fire in my soul that I once had. Let me tell you, If anyone who claims to be a follower of Christ comes to you and tells you that things will be great once you accept him, they are lying to you. It DOES NOT get easier if you are a follower of Christ, the problems will still happen. But the thing that happens is that things do become easier to deal with, if we follow Jesus and we put our hope and trust in him, if we find out joy in him, we find our strength there and our joy there, it’s a strength and joy that are not worldly so it wont fail us in those hard times.
Life will not be easy all the time, life will get hard, we will face trials, I feel like I am bring tested at this current time. But I am beginning to see a light at the end of the tunnel. Jessica is that thing that keeps whispering in my ear, “there is hope, this trial is only temporary, life will get better.” And you know what, I will, Last night at service, Heath evans spoke and sean Alexander showed up too, which was pretty cool, this will be in another devition/journal, but Evans said something amazing, that Tom Brady, not a Christian, has cars, women, money a huge house, MVP and 3 super bowl rings. In his 60minutes interview he said, “if this is all this world has to offer me, then I don’t want it” I mean, the guy who most people would say, has everything, and he says something like this. This gives me hope, this tells me that Jesus, might be the right way after all. So my challenge is to give Jesus a try, give him a chance to be your strength, your joy, your hope. It WONT be easy, but it will be easier to handle.
