Being Content

Joyous Strength

I’ve been at this Christian thing for a while. A lot of times I relate to King Solomon: there’s nothing new under the sun. I can quote Bible verses fairly accurately off the top of my head and can sing more worship songs than anyone (save God) could care to hear (If you doubt that – ask the art department where I work. They’ve been treated to a rousing rendition of “Father Abraham.) It’s easy to get into a routine – a habitual expectation of how God will show up in my life. However, every once in a while, my arrogance is rocked and I realize that I have even begun to understand the depths of the mysteries of God. In short, I learn something new.

Nehemiah 8:10 states ” . . .Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” I’m not sure when I first heard this, but it’s been familiar to me for a long while. I’ve even suggested it to be used on Christian product. And yet, as I sat in the car after a frustrating day and listened to Chris Tomlin sing “How Great is Our God’ it took on new meaning. I guess because I’ve always kind of twisted the verse in my mind to mean that when we rest in God, He provides us strength and joy. In reality, that’s not at all what the verse says. The only joy that is talked about is God’s. His joy, His pleasure that should be our focus. When we’re focused on bringing Him glory, we’re not worried about ourselves and our petty desires. We’re not even focused on the blessings that God’s given us. Our total focus is on God’s happiness. Through this we get our strength. Our joy isn’t the provision for our strength; His joy is. Because of it, we have reason to stop grieving. We have desire to move forward. And we have all the provision we need for today.

As humans we strive to avoid pain and seek pleasure. God’s Word tells us to seek His pleasure. Not because of what it will get us, but because His joy is the only thing that can fill the “God-shape hole” that each of us have (a concept that was, oddly enough, originally presented by Pascal – a scientist.) We develop more and more into the person that God’s created us to be, when we seek Him above all else. Only then, do we build strength.

Mercy Me’s new song states what our heart’s desire should be:

Bring me joy, bring me peace
Bring the chance to be free
Bring me anything that brings You glory
And I know there’ll be days
When this life brings me pain
But if that’s what it takes to praise You
Jesus, bring the rain

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Growth

No Subject Line

One of my silly pet peeves is receiving e-mails that have no subject line. (If you happen to be someone who has sent me one of those e-mails than I apologize for publicly, yet annonymously railing against you. If you are someone who thinks it would now be funny to send me a bunch of e-mails without a subject line, please refrain. 🙂 ) I blame a former boss for this annoyance – he also asked that e-mails be sent with a short, yet informative subject line. In reality, though, this blame is misplaced. The truth is that I’ve grown to depend on those (hopefully few) words to tell me what is contained inside. Those words help me prioritize, sort, and recall. I need them. Without them, my whole system of preference and organization crumbles. With them, I can manage expectations, create shortcuts and generally anticipate events. They give me a preview and create a passageway for avoidance. They are, in short, a relied upon convenience.

In a lot of ways, I think it would be nice if life came with subject lines. Just imagine. I think they would read something like this:

– A Good Day
– Temper Lost
– Sorrow to Avoid
– Disappointment in Friends
– Promises Ahead
– Next Steps

Think how easy life would be to handle if we knew what each day contained. If we could anticipate the story before experiencing it. We could organize, prioritize, sort and recall. We could know the content before knowing the context.

The thing about e-mail subject lines is that they create the wrong impression. Sometimes we don’t read what the e-mail contains because we think we already know what’s inside. Or maybe we don’t read the whole e-mail, once our initial hunch is seemingly verified. We ignore because we’re ignorant of what’s important. We respond based on perception. We act before understanding.

We’d probably do the same if every day came with its own subject line. We’d probably avoid the days like “Disappointment in Friends” assuming it meant that we would be disappointed, not that there was something we could do to prevent another’s discouragement. We’d focus on the e-mails that said “A Good Day” not realizing that its often in the bad days that we learn the most. We wouldn’t be burden by life’s unexpectancies, but we wouldn’t be blessed by life’s surprises. In trying to manage life, we’d quelch it.

I still prefer e-mails with subject lines. But I’m glad that life comes without.

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