Praise be to Jesus for this new day. It is
going to be glorious and brilliant. He blessed us with a sweet Wednesday
evening gathering. As we wake up to a brand new day the fear about the ebola
virus is spreading like a wild fire around the corner and around the globe.
When we look at life deeply we recognize that all of us live just a breath away
from eternity. It is easy to be consumed by fear and panic. Those who love
Jesus, serve Him, and live in Him can not live on panic and fear but in faith in
His deep abiding peace.
I am so blessed. One if the big blessings
is the gift of the Lord in my four daughters. We cherish our times together.
We rejoice in the blessings and the gifts of the Lord. Often when we share our
time together the Lord does encourage me through their faith and faithfulness to
the Lord.
Whenever I participate in the service death
and resurrection I quote from the Letter of Paul to the Philippians. This
letter was written by Paul while he was held prisoner. By the world's
standards, he should have been miserable, but when you read this letter, from
first to the last, it vibrates with joy. As he came to the closing verses he
saide, "Rejoice in the Lord always! Again I say, Rejoice!"
One of Paul's favorite words is the Greek
word hilarotes, from which we get the word
hilarity. It literally means "laughter from the heart." When Paul spoke of joy, he did not mean the trivial,
shallow, obscene or mean-spirited stuff we call humor today. He meant
a bone-deep, blood-rich, exuberant laughter which comes up out of the depths of
a person's soul, a joy which flows from the center of our being, a happiness
coming from the depth of our hearts. Holy
hilarity is born out of deep, inner peace, a peace which passes all
understanding. It is a peace which comes from knowing that we are really loved
and accepted by God.
My experience tells me that uptight people
can never really experience joy. People who have everything screwed down real
tight can never learn to dance. People who are not at peace with themselves,
people who carry around the baggage of past hurts and failures, people who look
at the world through the narrow lens of their own self-interest, people who just
plain don't like themselves or others, can never really discover the hilarity
the Gospel promises. Only those who let go and discover the deep peace which
comes in knowing we are loved simply because God chooses to accept and love us,
can know the freedom of laughter.
There's a line from G. K. Chesterton which
I've claimed as part of the operating creed for my life, "Angels can fly
because they take themselves so lightly." In stark contrast to
this, I have known a lot of Christians who
take themselves entirely too seriously. We need to take the love of God and the
good news of the Gospel seriously, but we don't have to take ourselves seriously
at all. There is great joy that comes in knowing that we can trust the goodness
and love of God.
"Finally, whatever is true, whatever is
honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is
commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of
praise, think about these things." Real joy
-- holy hilarity -- is shaped by a disciplined focus of our hearts and minds and
souls on things that are good, things that are beautiful, things that are filled
with the joy of the Spirit of Christ.
Paul came to a grand conclusion in
Philippians 4:11 when he said, "I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know
what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all
circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry,
of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through him who
strengthens me."
The J. B. Phillips translation has great
feeling for the emotion of Paul's letters, "I
have learned to be content, whatever the circumstances may be. I know now how
to live when things are difficult and I know how to live when things are
prosperous... I have learned the secret of facing plenty or poverty. I am ready
for anything through the strength of the one who lives within me." Paul said he had already learned all of that. Jesus, the
Lord of Joy, grants us the hilarity of the soul which thrives within us in any
circumstances.
In Christ,
Brown
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