Joy

Let the eternal Truth be your sole and supreme joy.

-Thomas A Kempis

This morning our water heater was not doing its job of heating water.  Now, what can be worse than a cold shower?  My initial reaction was to complain.  However, before the complaint escaped, I thought of my daughter’s last email from Papua New Guinea.  She shared the joys of bucket showers.  Bucket showers do not sound like hot showers.  In fact, they sound rather cold.  And, if I were in Papua New Guinea or some other foreign field, I would probably not bemoan the experience of a cold shower.  The adventure of it would be just one more delight.

After my cold shower, my quiet time reading from The Practice of Godliness by Jerry Bridges found me in the chapter of Joy.  Joy.  It is an emotion that often evades us in our North American culture.  We are too accustomed to lamenting about how life should be rather than rejoicing in how life is.  Doubt, worry, and despair weigh us down with heavy hearts and we become discouraged.  Murmuring becomes a way of life.

But this is not the life God would have for us.  Hebrews 12:1 calls to lay aside those weights of discouragement that encumber us and to run the race with endurance.  Laying aside those weights frees us to run with delight.  The joy we experience gives us the strength to continue moving forward.  Joy comes in part by laying aside weights, but real and full joy comes from our focus.  We are to look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.  He and the life He has given us bring real and abiding joy.  In His presence is fullness of joy; at His right hand are pleasures forevermore.  (Psalm 16:11)

Jerry Bridges reminds us, “We can go through life bored, glum, and complaining, or we can rejoice in the Lord, in our names being written in heaven, in the hope of an eternal inheritance.  It is both our privilege and our duty to be joyful.  To be joyless is to dishonor God and to deny His love and His control over our lives.  To be joyful is to experience the power of the Holy Spirit within us and to say to a watching world, “Our God reigns.”

Ways, Plans, and Methods

Delight yourself also in the Lord,

And He shall give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the Lord,

Trust also in Him,

And He shall bring it to pass.

He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light,

And your justice as the noonday.

Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him.

Psalm 37:4-7a

In Jerry Benjamin’s booklet Simply Singular, he writes, “In the book of Judges, when God gave the strategy to defeat Israel’s enemies, at no time was it used more than once.  God never repeated tactic, because He did not want Israel looking to the method, but to the Master!”  Mr. Benjamin continues by reminding us that “We are not only familiar but also ‘at-home’ operating in the flesh – human effort, human strength, and human wisdom – because we can still be in control.  After perfecting the procedure, we no longer need the Person!”

These thoughts can apply to homeschooling.  As we begin planning for next year, it is easy to rest in our own efforts, our own strengths, and our own wisdom.  We rely on procedures and tactics that have worked in past years.  We depend on guidance from the success of others.  We trust in curriculum that promises favourable results.  It is not wrong to glean from past experiences or from other homeschoolers.  However, it is wrong to depend on these things rather than trusting in the Lord and His guidance.  It is too easy to become preoccupied with the methods of homeschooling and forget the Person who has led us to homeschool.

As Proverbs 3:5-6 instructs us, we are not to lean on our own understanding, but rather we are to acknowledge Him in all our ways.  Then He shall direct our paths.  When we delight ourselves in Him, He leads the way and gives us the desires of our hearts.  When we commit our ways to Him and trust in Him, He will bring it to pass.  He will lead and guide in the way that He has planned.  Our ways and plans may be different from His, but His ways and plans will bring the success that best honours Him and His truth. 

As we plan for the next homeschooling year, we have before us two options.  We can worry and fret and seek out the best methods to bring about the most favourable results or we can rest in Him and wait patiently for Him.  As we abide in Him, He will faithfully lead us to the right resources and the right methods.  As we allow Him control, He will uphold us with His hand and He will give us and our children a future of peace.  As we trust in Him, He will give us strength and deliverance in times of trouble.  He will not fail to bless those who lean on Him.  Praise God for His constant faithfulness!

The Big Picture

A mother’s love lives on. . . .

She remembers . . . her child’s merry laugh,

The joyful shout of his childhood,

The opening promise of his youth.

-Washington Irving

I have been called ‘lucky’.  My children love the Lord.  They walk in His ways.  One has now graduated from university and been commissioned as an officer in the US Navy.  Another is in university.  The others have goals and dreams.  It may seem that I am lucky, but really I am blessed.  I am blessed by God for no other reason but that He loves to bless His children, just as I love to bless mine.  Psalm 36:7-9 reminds us, “How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God!  Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings.  They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house, and You give them drink from the river of Your pleasures.  For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we see light.”

Recently, as I sat in my son’s graduation and as I participated in his commissioning, I marvelled at all that God had done this far in his life.  He has blessed my son more than I can imagine.  The words of a mother just reaching the high school years came back to me, “I need to see the big picture.”  In looking back, I don’t think we can ever really see the ‘big picture’.  My plans for my son would have been much too small.  God had bigger plans.  I am so thankful that He took over.  And in many ways I am glad that I did not see the ‘big picture’ when I started homeschooling high school.  It would have been too frightening to think that I had to get my son where God took him.  It would then have been my effort and not God’s blessing.

As my son now moves on to the next step in his life journey, I am thankful that he is under the shadow of God’s wings.  I know that I can trust him completely with God.  And I am blessed not only with God’s blessings to my son, but also with the precious memories of his childhood and youth.  I remember his merry laughter and joyful shouts.  I remember the ‘opening promise of his youth’ when God placed him with a scholarship in just the right university.  Even looking back the ‘big picture’ still eludes me.  I only know enough of what God has done to praise Him for His lovingkindness and faithfulness.  I know that my son was where God wanted him to be, but I don’t know all the reasons. 

When I am tempted to worry about the future of my other children, I am reminded to trust them to Him.  When I am tempted to look for the ‘big picture’, I am reminded to trust Him with the details.  When I am tempted to be afraid because my efforts are too small, I am reminded that His blessings do not rely on my achievements.  His blessings do not come because I deserve them, but rather because He loves me.  And, as amazing as it seems, He loves my children more than I do.  It is a blessing not to require the ‘big picture’, but rather to trust my loving Lord with the details of the future.

A Welcoming Greeting

True love is but a humble, low-born thing,

And hath its food served up in earthenware;

It is a thing to walk with, hand in hand,

Through the everydayness of this work-day world,

Baring its tender feet to every roughness,

Yet letting not one heart-beat go astray

From beauty’s law of plainness and content –

A simple, fireside thing, whose quiet smile

Can warm earth’s poorest hovel to a home.

-James Russell Lowell

Recently I dropped off a donation of some newly purchased items at a local charity.  The reception I received surprised me.  I first went into the office without the items to be sure that I was in the right place and that someone was there to receive the items.  When I entered the door, the office seemed deserted, but going down a short hallway, I found an office with three workers.  No one got up to greet me.  One kept her back towards me, while another smiled sweetly and said that I could indeed bring up the items.

On the way back to my car, I mused at my reception and wistfully thought that it would have been nice if someone had offered to come and help me bring up the donation items.  But I believed things would be different when I entered the second time.  I brought up the filled laundry basket and bag, through the double door entrance, up the elevator, and down the hall to the office.  The ladies still sat at their desks and a fourth worker had joined them.  Again, no one got up to receive me or the items.  I put them down next to the nearest desk and waited.  Maybe I expected some sort of thank you or at least an inquiry as to whom the gifts had come from.

When no one thanked or inquired, I timidly mentioned the church that was responsible for sending the gifts.  They may have nodded their heads, but they remained at their tasks as if they didn’t really care.  One said, “Every little bit helps.”  I wondered a bit at the remark as I knew that the ladies who had sent the items had spent well over $300.  Finally, as if it was an afterthought, the fourth lady got up and gave me a pre-printed thank card and some brochures about the ministry.

I left the building feeling unwelcomed and perplexed.  My 40 minute drive home was one of serious thoughtfulness.  I had previously called the ministry and asked what was needed.  I had also called after receiving the gifts to ask about the best time to drop them off.  I felt that I had covered my bases.  But I wondered if the ministry really needed the items at all.  Would I encourage the ladies at my church to support this ministry again next year?  Would I direct anyone there for their services?

And I thought about the idea of marketing.  That term has always seemed a little unchristian to me.  However, lately I have had some interaction with the business school at our local university, and I have come to understand that marketing occurs everywhere in our day-to-day lives.  Two students I met at the school were in between their undergraduate degrees in pre-med and their med school days.  “Why business?” I had asked incredulously.  “Even a doctor needs to have some business sense,” was the reply.

Much of what we do in life requires a little marketing.  Knowing how to greet those with whom we come in contact, sharing our enthusiasm for an idea, these require marketing techniques.  And whether we want to admit it or not, these techniques keep things like our ministries going.  People need to know that they are important to us and to our ministries.  I am reminded of something I heard Dr. Jeff Myers say.  I am paraphrasing his words, but the idea was to “always treat those you meet as though God loves them.” 

Yes, everyone with whom we come in contact should leave with the sense that they and their gifts are welcomed, that they are important in God’s eyes and in our eyes.  No one should ever leave our presence feeling as if they had intruded where they were unwanted.  We cannot let “one heart-beat go astray” from our presence.  Our welcome should “warm earth’s poorest hovel to a home.”  Let us greet those around us with the love of our Lord Jesus who always had time to welcome the multitudes into His presence.

Focus, Enthusiasm, Passion

I am reading a little booklet by Jerry Benjamin titled What is the First Indication of Turning Away From God?  What is the first indication of turning away from God?  It is murmuring.  Mr. Benjamin reminds us, “God created us in His image – with a mind to know Him, a heart to love Him, and a will to obey Him – in order that we might enjoy a living, personal relationship with Him.  Hence, the Christian life is not a lifestyle, but fellowship with a Person, the Lord Jesus Christ.”  Murmuring deteriorates that fellowship.  Worry, which is a form of murmuring, corrodes that fellowship. 

Often worry and complaints become such a part of our lives that we don’t even realize the affect they are having on our precious relationship with our Lord and Saviour.  We must consciously look this sin in the face and call it what it is, sin.  The remedy doesn’t consist of refusing to complain or argue or even of   resisting worry.  The remedy consists of what Mr. Benjamin’s title infers, turning to God.  I think of Peter walking on the water.  As long as his attention was on Jesus, he walked on the water.  The minute his attention turned to the waves around him, he began to sink.  Our attention must be drawn to the Lord.  He must be our all in all.  

We must focus, not on what we know, but on Who we know.  Hebrews 12:1-3 instructs us to “lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.”  Look unto Jesus.  Consider Him.  With our eyes on Him, we are able to run with endurance and to resist becoming weary and discouraged.  Focusing on His presence gives us strength and inspires us in the way we should go.

Our enthusiasm must be, not for what we know, but for Who we know.  We must cry out as the Psalmist does in Psalm 34:1-3.  “I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.  My soul shall make its boast in the Lord; the humble shall hear of it and be glad.  Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together.”  Our zeal and praise for the Lord should be evident to all around us.  We should praise His name at all times and boast of all He has done in our lives.  We should bless Him for His constant faithfulness.  We can be enthusiastic about the Lord because He is faithful and He sustains us daily.  He hears us and He delivers us.  He redeems us.  Who has a loving Lord like we have?  Let us eagerly praise His holy name!

Our passion should be, not to know more, but to know Him more.  This is the type of ardent affection that the Psalmist proclaims in Psalm 42:1-2.  “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God.  My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.  When shall I come and appear before God?”  Our very soul should thirst for God, to know Him deeper, to experience Him more fully.  We should not be content to know more about Him, but we should pant to know Him.  We should long for Him and cry out for a fuller understanding of His ways.

I do not always live my life focussed on the Lord, full of enthusiasm and passion for Him.  I, like Peter, often focus my attention on the waves.  But I do long to have that intimate fellowship with Him that He intends for me.  I desire to know Him, to love Him, and to obey Him.  I yearn to focus on Him and to be enthusiastic and passionate about my relationship with Him.  And He is faithful.  As I learn to be thankful and as I learn to trust in Him more fully, He will fill me with the rich joy of intimate fellowship with Him, the Lord of Lords and King of Kings.  What an awesome thought!

I have not yet finished this little booklet by Jerry Benjamin from his Little Nuggets Series, but what I have read is definitely a “selection of gems of truth and rich insights from Scripture” and I highly recommend it.