JOY

"You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy."

Psalm 45:6-7



I can remember when my great grandmother would stand at the door at the crack of down and say these words "this is the day that the Lord has made, let us REJOICE and be glad in it". To this very day those words are at the very core of my being and I remember them often (almost every morning), that my day and life for that matter is made complete in Christ Jesus and that His joy is my strength.

As I think on things above as the word directs me to, I come to realize that life is to be joyous and that the Holy Spirit does lift me as I call on him to be the "oil of joy" in my life. Recently, I have been rethinking what the calling is in my life and how I am first and foremost "called" to be a disciple of Jesus and to live on "mission" as he did. So, I am living this life in Christ continually dying to self in whatever context I find myself, home, family, friends, job (whirlpool headquarters), church life/ministies, etc...

So, as I was driving to work this morning, giving thanks to God for everything in my life when I had this overwhelming sense of joy that I was on my way to work...now I know that may sound funny to some of you, but really, I was overwhelmed with a sense of joy that I was actually living on mission and that God has placed me in a vocation that allows me to earn a living for my family, and also at the same time hopefully help to expand the Kingdom of God amongst the people I rub shoulders with daily and to me that is not drudgery one bit. At one point in time I looked at my "calling" as the institution of the church and that my ministry was within the 4 walls of it, I boxed it and wrapped it neatly with all the bells and whistles and said this is what it should look like. But as God so graciously does, He has been showing me my narrow mindedness and allowing me to see a bit from His eyes, where there's a world out there that may never make it within the 4 walls of the church, so to speak, and may never have the opportunity to come face to face with someone trying to live out Christ, Christ cruicified through the ever increasing power of the Holy Spirit to the point that people actually notice that there is something strangely different about you and that the love and joy we carry with us in "whatever context" (whirlpool) we find are selves, we are and will LIVE ON MISSION as Jesus did.
We must continue to Love God and Love People and allow the JOY of the Lord to be our strength always!