“Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah the Lord.”…Suddenly a great company of heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”-Luke 2:11, 13-14

 “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”-Romans 8:28.

 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”- John 16:33

 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.-Philippians 4:7

 

Just an Ordinary Christian

 Perhaps if I could stop whining
Because I think that I deserve more,
I could finally see outside myself
To what I should be thankful for.
Maybe if I would stop crying
Because I think I’ve lost my dream,
I could hear the outcry of real victims
Understand that for which they scream.

But I’m just an ordinary Christian
Who’s forgotten who she serves.
Just an ordinary Christian
Who’s forgotten what her God deserves.
There’s nothing that can separate me
From the perfect love of God
But I’m just an ordinary Christian
And I’ve forgotten to be awed.

I am loved by the creator of the universe
Who controls the wind and tide.
But I’ve forgotten to be grateful
Because I’m so consumed with pride.
I‘ve become my only focus
It’s filled my soul with ennui
When I should always be focused
On my Lord who died for me.

 The same Lord who always blesses me
Despite the enormity of my sin
If only I drop to my knees
And in repentance pray to Him.
The same Lord who walked alone to death
As He carried His own cross,
So that we might live eternally;
So not one soul would be lost

So perhaps if I quit whining
In this the season of His birth,
My worship might approximate
What His love for me is worth.
And if I would stop crying now
About what I think I deserve,
I might feel appropriate awe
For this enormous God, I serve.
©Linda Troxell, 12/18/2018

 

I fully intended to post this Christmas post before Christmas. However, this season was so busy and Christmas came so quickly that it was gone before I fully realized it was here. As you can see, I wrote the poem on the 18^th. I thought I had plenty of time to complete it and get it posted before Christmas. But obviously not. I hope you will forgive my tardiness. But at the same time, I think that the message is, indeed, timely to any season. So, I hope you enjoy it despite my tardiness.

Statistics say that at Christmas time, the number of people who label themselves as depressed increases appreciably. It’s an exciting season and we, with a huge amount of help from commercialization, idealize it. Often we have a picture in our head of the perfect Christmas that we can never create in reality. So, many of us feel disappointed and let down because we can’t live up to our own expectation of what Christmas should be. And, somehow, that diminishes our sense of worthiness.

I know this is not a new problem. It’s probably been around as long as Christmas has been celebrated. But I think it has been exacerbated by social media. Now, we can no longer convince ourselves that everybody else’s perfect Christmas is all in our head. Because every time we go online there are pictures posted of everyone’s beautiful decorations, perfect baked goods, and handsome families. I’ve found it best to stay off of social media during the holidays. Because if I don’t, I can fall prey to the depression that comes with the feeling that everyone else has everything I want and therefore there must be something wrong with me.

I know I should know better. As a Christian, I know that this time of year is not about decorations, or baked goods or presents. It’s about celebrating the gift that God gave to the world with the birth of His Son. “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah the Lord. ”…Suddenly a great company of heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”-Luke 2:11, 13-14.  In celebration of that gift, my focus should not be on myself. It should be on the Lord and on gratitude for what He has done for me. My focus should be on acts of worship; on what I can give back to God.

 Christmas time, of course, is not the only time that my focus should be on the Lord. Being grateful for all of the blessings God has given me is something I should do every day all year long. However, at this time of year when the birth of Jesus is the only reason for celebration, it seems even more important to focus on my gratitude toward God. Yet, it is just this time of year that I am most susceptible to focusing on myself.  And not just on myself, but on everything I don’t have.  Christmas time is the time of year when, as a Christian, I should be the most grateful for all that the Lord has done in my life, instead, I am feeling sorry for myself because I don’t have a Hallmark Christmas.  It is a problem that has bothered me for years. And for years I have been searching for the reason I cannot seem to be happy at Christmas.

Well, this year I think I’ve found a clue. A clue that explains why, no matter how hard I’ve tried, I just can’t seem to be happy at Christmas. No matter how grateful I am that God sent His son to earth to bless us all beyond anything that we deserve, I can’t seem to get past the feeling that everyone else’s happiness towers over mine. I think the answer might be in my idea of what happy means. This clue came when I watched an interview on YouTube with Lisa Harper regarding her book, The Sacrament of Happiness: What a Happy God Brings to a Broken World.  It forever changed how I will think of happiness and of God.

Lisa is one of my favorite Bible teachers, authors and Christian speakers. If you do not know her, you owe it to yourself to Google her and get to know her. She is someone who can bring the Bible alive like no other. And with her southern humor and down to earth manner of speaking she makes even complicated concepts easy to understand.

In this interview, Lisa shared that as she grew up she was tacitly taught that happiness does not belong in church. That somehow to pursue happiness is not holy. She was taught by one pastor that JOY is an acronym for Jesus, Others and You and that God calls us to seek this kind of joy but not happiness. Happiness, he told her, is what the world calls us to seek.  Now, although I didn’t have the same experience as Lisa, what she described certainly reflects the idea I got about God and happiness as well.

When I was growing up, happiness always seemed a bit superficial to be a part of the church. There was a message, subtle as it might have been, that holy and happy are not congruent. A message that ran just below the surface that said good Christians do not seek after happiness and suffering is somehow holy.  As a result, I would have never considered that happiness could be a Biblical concept. However, it turns out that there are as many as 2,700 references to happiness in the Bible. And 85 of those are direct references in which God describes Himself as happy.

Now, it’s important for me to point out that there is a huge distinction between worldly happiness and Biblical happiness.  What the world labels as happiness is nothing more than an elevated mood or pleasant emotion. It is entirely dependent on circumstance or even happenstance, making it almost totally outside of our control. Worldly happiness comes with ups and downs depending on arbitrary events such as who is or is not angry with us, the amount in our bank account, or whether or not we are included in a particular group. Our worldly happiness is at the mercy of superficial things such as the number on the scale or whether or not we can fit in a certain dress. Even the weather can increase or decrease our worldly happiness.

Biblical happiness, on the other hand, is dependable, stable and unchanging.  Because it’s based on God who never changes. Biblical happiness is a state of being that is based on our delight, fulfillment, and contentment tied to God’s character.   In the title of her book, Lisa calls happiness a sacrament. Now, this might well shock, even offend, some of us who were taught that the only sacraments are Holy Commune, the Eucharist, Baptism, or Marriage. But, she tells us that theologically, the definition of a sacrament is:  A visible sign of an inward grace. That is, something we do or that is done to us that represents what God has done in us. This is not inconsistent with Biblical happiness which is something God gives to His children based on who He is and not on circumstance.

In the world, being happy is so important to us that we seem to be constantly striving for it. We don’t seem to realize that worldly happiness is precarious and arbitrary. We don’t seem to understand that it is based on things that can and do change, from day to day, even hour to hour. This leaves us striving for something over which we have no control nor influence. This, then, tends to make us believe that happiness comes to those who deserve it. No wonder so many of us begin to feel unfulfilled, unworthy and eventually depressed.

Biblical happiness, rather than being a mood that is influenced by every up or down of our worldly circumstance, is a part of our faith, belief, and trust in our God. So that when “bad” things happen, and we have been promised they will happen, we can still have peace and we can still be content.  “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”- John 16:33

Worldly happiness takes a short view and is based on moods and temporary feelings. Biblical happiness takes an eternal view and is based on the goodness of God and the depth of our faith. Worldly happiness comes and goes depending on what is going on in our lives day to day. Biblical happiness is stable no matter what happens in our lives; because no matter what happens in our lives, we know God is always good and He always loves us. God’s word has assured us that everything will work out for our good. “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”-Romans 8:28.

Now, like so many life-changing truths, this one is simple but not necessarily easy. It is not always easy to come to nor to hold onto an immutable, inalterable, unchangeable belief of any kind, much less one based on God who is unseen. So how in the world do we come to believe in this immutable happiness that stands up to all circumstances that life can throw at us?

Well, because ultimately this belief depends on the character of God, I think we first start with a study of what the Bible says about God’s character. Because if God is not a happy God then it will be hard to believe that He wants happiness for us. If God is not trustworthy, it will be hard to believe we can trust him to use all circumstances for our good. If God is not steadfast, if He is not loyal then it will be hard for us to trust that He will be here for us day in and day out.

So I would suggest that you get a good concordance and use it to read every verse about whatever adjectives that speaks to God’s character: merciful, trustworthy, righteous, and any others you can think of. Now, to study the happiness of God, we must study scripture that uses the word blessed. Because in both Hebrew and Greek the word happy, Makarios in Greek, (G3107 in Strong’s Concordance) and Esher in Hebrew (H835 in Strong’s Concordance) have the same root as the word blessed.

This information has already made a difference in my happiness. Now when I find myself feeling unhappy, or even a bit down, I remind myself that the feeling I am focused on is fleeting and will change as my circumstances change. And then I make myself focus on God, His character and the blessings on which my true happiness depends. This may or may not elevate my mood, but so far, if I allow it to, it always brings about a contentment that is deeper than my mood. This, I think, must be that peace that passes all understanding. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.-Philippians 4:7