Just Go, with Joy

I have a dear friend and running partner who is blessed with parents that are very active in her life, her husband's life and her children's life.  When we were running the other day she talked a little bit about her father.  He was coming to her house to be with her kids while she went to the dentist and she mentioned the fact that he would be about 20 minutes early.  I immediately chalked that up to an aging phenomenon that I have seen happen with my own grandparents and a little with my father.  The older they get, the earlier everything happens, including their arrival time.  However, to the contrary, her father has always run 20 minutes early as a result of his ability to just get up and go.  My friend illustrated that even when she was growing up he lived his life in such a way that he was never wrapping something up before he left or getting just one more thing done before he took advantage of what was in front of him.  He just went.  He took the opportunity in the moment it was given.

Isaiah had a similar response to taking an opportunity.  In Isaiah 6:8-9 it says, 'Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send?  And who will go for us?"  And I said, "Here am I.  Send me!"'  Isaiah did not hesitate when the opportunity presented itself.  He just went.  And I believe he went with joy as the exclamation point at the end of statement indicates.  And this is what my friend's father does.  When asked to take an opportunity, spend time with his family, take care of his grandchildren, play golf, he just goes, no wrapping up, no one last thing to do, he just goes and does it joyfully.  Doesn't the ability to just go create joy purely in the ability to go and not be burdened by one last thing before we go?

My daughter has the ability to take an opportunity when it is presented; you might remember my story from the last post on her ability to leave an outlandish mess to run to her friend's house and play.  My son, however, does not have this same personality trait.  Cole is more thoughtful about his movements through his day.  He considers the time it will take, what the outcome will be as a result of the activity and how the activity fits into the overall picture of his day.  He has inherited this visionary quality with the inability to be spontaneous from ME!  But from Emma we are both learning to worry less about the mess on the floor.  It will be there when we get back for sure, so why rush into it?

The ability to be ready to take advantage of something in the moment is living in joy.  If we truly look for joy and approach each situation with joy, the joy that is found in the gifts of the Lord, then there is something different in our heart that is motivating us.  There is joy in the freedom that we have when we take advantage and leave the drudgery behind.  But there is a specific motivation that enables us to move through life with the ability to just go.  In Matthew 6:21 it says, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."  So where is our heart and our children's hearts?  What is our treasure at the center of our being, our heart?  That center and treasure are what enable us to go and to go joyfully.

We are God's cherished possession.  There is significant joy in the knowledge of that if we truly understand it.  He has chosen us, not because of what we have done, but because he loved us.  We are dear to his heart. 
"For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
 The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the LORD loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the LORD brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Know therefore that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments;.."  Deuteronomy 7:6-9
That alone makes me want to jump for joy!  If we are that dear to God, how dear is he to us?  Is he our treasured possession?  If he is our treasured possession and the treasure of our hearts then we walk through our days with joy and we don't worry about what is next.

Now, in all of this, I am not saying that we shirk responsibility.  There are necessities in life: laundry, making meals, driving all over kingdom come, making sure children are bathed and teeth brushed, etc. But do we find joy in that responsibility as well as allow ourselves to take full advantage of opportunities presented to us which may allow us to experience unadulterated Godly joy?  And are we emulating that joyful response and ability to just go to our children?

Psalm 16:11 says, "You have made known to me the path of life; you fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand."  Do we take advantage of the pleasures available in daily life, the moments that we may miss if we are wrapping up one more thing before we go?  Do we stop and watch a silly cartoon with our kids, just because they want us to?  It is an opportunity, is it not?

We have all heard the 'don't out your eggs in one basket' mantra.  I want to challenge that.  If we put all our eggs in God's basket and he is our heart's treasure then we truly approach life from a different vantage point.  We just go.  And we go with joy.

By His Grace

Reckless Abandon!

Kids get joy!  I just returned from a week long elementary summer camp with 94 kids and they get it.  Kids live in the moment.  When given music and the opportunity to raise their hands and praise God, they do!  With reckless abandon!  It is an unbelievable sight to see 94 kids and their counselors dancing around with joy singing songs to the Lord.  It brought tears to my eyes more than once throughout the week.

Kids have the ability to completely and utterly abandon all their concerns and worries and get caught up in the moment and I envy them for that.  Given the opportunity for joy, kids don't worry about where their next meal is coming from, what clothes they are wearing at the time, what friends are watching them, or what others might think.  In the safe environment of summer camp they let go and let God move.  The example those kids were providing is biblical.  In Matthew 6:25 it says, "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.  Is not life more important than food and the body more important than clothes?"  But life is not summer camp.  It is not as safe as we would like it to be.  The presence of our God, however, is safe.  And it is a joyful place.  The more we leave our cares and worries behind and move through life in the presence of our God, the more joy we will exude to those around us.  You have to come home from summer camp, but the experience and the living in the Lord can go with you, we just have to make a conscious decision to walk in joy.  We must make decisions to take the opportunities the Lord provides for us and enter them with joy.

Emma lives in the moment.  Just today I asked her to clean out a couple boxes of school stuff so we could prepare for the coming school year.  While I was taking a little rest, she received a call from a friend to come over for a little while.  She took advantage of that and left what she was doing and took the chance at joy that was presented to her (after Daddy had given permission of course).  Now the mess that was left behind was huge and is still sitting on my floor at this minute.  There are books and cards and binders strew throughout our entire family room and she is off living life joyfully!  While the mess makes my skin crawl,  I have to give it to her for taking the opportunity when presented.  I am not sure I always to that.  If I did I am sure I would live more joyfully than I do.

I remember having 'mountain top' experiences at camps when I was growing up.  I remember truly enjoying them and then being so sad to re-enter the world when the camp was over.  But God wants us to live in the mountain top experience each day.  He wants us to cast our cares on him and to walk in joy,  joy of the knowledge that he has it under control and his plan will be established and completed.  How can we help our kids to walk in a mountain experience?  To walk through life with reckless abandon?  We can begin by giving them the opportunity to worship God wholeheartedly, lifting hands to him and singing from the depths of our soul.  He will provide his protection, his mountain experience, we just need to cast our worries on him and walk through life with reckless abandon.  Matthew 6:34 says "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own."

Life gets overwhelming, but the more joyful moments we have the more joy we have to fall back on when we get overwhelmed.  All 94 kids at that camp were not Christians, but all 94 kids praised the Lord.  That experience will stay with them and potentially at a dark moment in their life their little brains will recall a time when they sang to the Lord from the pit of their stomach.  Maybe that will provide some comfort and direction in the face of a hard time.  Reckless Abandon is a song we sing at camp.  The kids love it, and they run around singing, raising their hands in the air.  It is an amazing sight that I want to share with you.

Reckless Abandon
I want to run through this life with reckless abandon.
You have promised there's more to this life.
I want to carelessly love you and dangerously worship you.
With reckless abandon I'll dance for you here.

I pray that my kids will approach life with the joy to be found in recklessly abandoning their life to the Lord.

By His Grace

Approach with Joy

The greek word for joy is 'chara'.  Chara defines joy further as a response, a rejoicing, a gladness, to celebrate.  One definition says the cause or occasion of joy.  Occasions are things that you attend or things that happen by someone doing something to providing something.  We recently attended our first ever Bar Mitzvah.  That was an occasion!  And it was full of joy.  A occasion of joy requires an action, right?  So begin joyful is a love action!  We choose to respond to events and circumstances in joy, we choose to praise our God with great joy. 

Emma is a pretty joyful person, except when she doesn't want to do something.  When she is faced with something that she does not want to do or does not want to say, she stands and looks at me and says nothing.  Her countenance is not bright and her eyes just drop.  My kids are on a swim team and Emma has been helping the little kids in the pool this season.  Recently she was due to be at the pool to help the little kids and she did not want to go.  I got the dark countenance, looking sadly straight in my eyes, clearing hoping she could bail out.  We had a conversation about commitment and even if you don't want to do something, you have to complete what you have committed to.  She sadly got into the car and off to the pool we went.  Then, miraculously, when I picked her up, she came bounding out of the pool, huge smile across her face, jumped into the car and was clearly joyful.  I asked how the time had been and she responded, "GREAT!"  She made a decision to do something that she had committed to and came out of it in great joy.  Just like we make a decision to be joyful and enjoy the journey that God has placed us on.  Just like the songs of ascent from last week's post.  We made a decision to be a Christian, can we do that with a joyful heart?

We are to be joyful in the journey because the joy at the end of it will be exceeding more joyful.  I am sure Emma walked onto the pool deck with a  smile on her face that day and after being in the experience of helping the little kids, she, in the end, was blessed with pure joy.  So making a choice to be joyful may be tough in the moment, but the end result will be more than even imagined.  In Hebrews 11: 24-28 it talks about Moses' faith and how he chose to be mistreated along with the people of God and not be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter.  He had the opportunity to remain an Egyptian, but he chose to join his own people.  Hebrews 11:26 says "He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures in Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward."  Do we look ahead and out of the circumstances that try to drown us?  Do we go in them joyfully expecting something exciting at the end?  Our children will encounter many tough situations in their life and the ability to approach them joyfully will help with some of their darkest times.

"Though you have made me see troubles, many and bitter, you will restore my life again; from the depths of the earth you will again bring me up...My lips will shout for joy when I sing praise to you - I, whom you have redeemed." Psalm 71:20 & 23 
We are talking a lot about how we approach situations this week and as the kids and I head off to a summer camp we are practicing being joyfully expectant, even in situations that try to overwhelm.  Because in the end, the JOY of the Lord is our strength in all situations.

By His Grace

Expect Joy!

My kids and I chatted about our month of love actions.  They both said, "It was hard." And they were right!  Cole defined it even further, "When you are angry it is very hard to think about love."  Again, he was right.  However, our calling as believers is to be different, and to live out our beliefs regardless of circumstances, but in all that, God also knows we are human.  He created us.  He also created us for joy.

We then discussed the beginning of a new month, while we continue to practice love actions, we are also going to focus on joy.  Immediate joy was visible in their faces, bright eyes, big beautiful smiles (small thanks to orthodontia), a higher position in their seats.  Emma then said, "That will be easy for Cole". 

While I don't see Cole as an overly joyful character, as I examine his daily moments and actions he expects joy.  Cole is very aware of what makes him joyful and what does not and as he has matured he has learned to remove himself from situations that deplete his joy.  As a little guy there was a time when we were at a baby shower, not fun for a 4 year old, and he was acting whiny and wanting to leave, which we were not about to do.  We were at a family member's house, so I gently pulled him to me and asked that he either change his attitude or go lay down in Aunt Nancy's bed and take a little nap.  He made the choice to lay down in the bed.  He was soon fast asleep.  While he only slept for a little while, he was a different person when he woke up.  This habit has continued for him.  When he is in a game of strong-willed, competitive, eight year old boys, I often observe Cole on the fringe, knowing that he does not want to be in the mix but is happy, even joyful, to watch and giggle from the outskirts.  I recently tried to convince Cole to attend a 5th grade pool party that Emma was attending, knowing that he would have a few friends there, but he very calmly said to him, "Mom, you know I don't like big, loud parties."  Cole knows where he experiences joy and tries to be in those places and avoids the others.  I believe that Cole goes into all situations expecting it to be joyful.  He is also careful to remove himself from situations once his joy is zapped.

Psalms 120-134 are songs of ascents.  Each year the Israelites would make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the temple for their yearly celebrations.  As they journeyed they would sing these songs of ascents.  As I read through them I was struck by the idea that as they were trudging through the dirt in sandals, carrying heavy water pitchers, maybe leading stinky camels, they were singing with the expectation of the joy they would feel and experience during their celebrations in the temple.  How beautiful! 

Psalm 126:6  'When the Lord brought back the captive ones of Zion, We were like those who dream.  Then our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with joyful shouting; Then they said among the nations, "The Lord has done great things for them."  The Lord has done great things for us; we are glad.'
I loved this scripture.  I love the idea of dreaming and to have that in the same scripture as joyful shouting was the ultimate happy place for me.  Expectant joy and dreaming are linked in my mind.  Dreaming is something that is hard to take away from someone.  Once a dreamer, always a dreamer.  I think dreamers are expectant of the potential joy in situations.  Are we expectant about the journey we have with the Lord?  The Israelites were joyfully expectant in their tangible journey each year, but we have a journey that we are on and are we singing joyful songs along the way, expecting wonderful things?  Do we look expectantly for what he is going to do each day and take joy in that expectation?  Do we dream about what God could do with and through our journey and our kid's journeys?

We recently planted a garden in our backyard together.  We planted the seeds inside, watched expectantly each day to see when they sprouted, were relieved when they did sprout, coddled and watered them inside, then moved them outside, fended off raccoons, more watering and more waiting.  Now we check each morning and something small is eating the little leaves.  The sprouts are not growing much.  What a bummer!  We did it all right, we labored and toiled and the result has been minimal at best.  I am more devastated than my kids.  The agony of all that waiting and work could make me lose my mind as every morning I go out and see no growth.  But it is a journey and there will be growth, maybe in a different form, maybe from the process my kids learned something, so I need to be expectantly joyful in the journey.  It is similar to our years of tears and toil as a parent, a volunteer, a prayerful friend.  Are we expectantly joyful about the prospect of the ultimate harvest that our toil will produce or are we caught up in the problems and challenges of what is happening now?  Can we take a cue from Cole and remove ourselves, go to the outskirts and look at the bigger picture with joy, cheering on the process and journey, knowing it will end well in the end?  God promises that it will end in a shout of joy!Psalm 126: 6 'He who goes to and fro weeping, carrying his bag of seed, shall indeed come again with a shout of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.'

Even our Almighty took a break to look at what he had done, toiled over, to see that it was good, to examine it with joy.  In Genesis 1:31 he took a break and looked back on his works and I have to believe that in his work he was joyfully expectant of the outcome.  ' God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.'  Genesis 1:31

So, while sometimes we get caught in the toil of the journey, how much better would it be if we were able to help our children develop the ability to travel through their days with expectant joy.  Can we enjoy our journey with the Lord, singing songs of ascent?  With the knowledge that all things work together for good, can that give us some focus from the outskirts, some understanding, some ability to not get caught in the toil, but to move forward expectantly, with joy?
Romans 8:28 'For we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.'  Journey to somewhere expecting joy!  Our family is joyfully expectant of an RV vacation we are embarking on, so we begin our month of joy, joyfully expecting!

By His Grace