Pretty ridiculous really, That much joy from watching 20 year old kids play a game?  Especially when you consider that all I did was sit on my couch in my climate controlled room watching the game on my High Definition big screen TV.  I didn’t practice, I didn’t call a play, I didn’t run a play.  All I did was claim that team as my own and cheer away – and believe. (Although, I can say I was pretty nervous in the first quarter!)

And yet, the joy overflows this morning!  I wonder if it will last past the time I walk through the office doors!

Wow, sort of reminds me of something else.  Something else that I did absolutely nothing to attain, except to believe.  Something that was done for me, for free.  Something I didn’t ask for, but has been given.

 ^9-11Now that we are set right with God by means of this sacrificial death, the consummate blood sacrifice, there is no longer a question of being at odds with God in any way. If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we’re at our best, just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of his resurrection life! Now that we have actually received this amazing friendship with God, we are no longer content to simply say it in plodding prose. We sing and shout our praises to God through Jesus, the Messiah! (Romans 5:9-11 MSG)

Double Joy!  Maybe even Triple Joy!

And this joy is unstoppable.

So in reality the effects of this game will wear off – and the old Mountaineers will lose again sometime in the future(maybe), but the true joy that comes from the Messiah, the Christ is there forever.

Pretty sweet uh!

How can you leverage your power and influence to make others successful?

Now if I could just live that way!

But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. (Hebrews 3:13 NIV)

This weekend I have been thinking about these weeks ahead and the ‘business’ that they are filled with and have decided to not be stressed by it.  There are so many positive things about to happen as our children discover their own strengths and weaknesses.  I can’t imagine the amount of memories that I will gather as a parent observing and challenging those guys. Maybe I am a little crazy, but I have decided that this busyness is life. Oh, sure some of it can be reduced, and lots of it can be managed.  But instead of ‘just getting through it’ or trying to find another way, I am going to try to embrace it head on.  (This may be the biggest mistake of my life!).

I am starting to think that the things we do each day are not barriers to us living life, but actually are us living life.  So today, on this Monday morning the beginning of a week with a schedule that is quite full, I am rejoicing.  Not because I am ‘busy’, for there is not doubt I would rather be laying on beach somewhere, but because I am starting a a day that is a gift from the Lord and the number of opportunities that lay ahead of me in this busyness are enormous.

So off I go, rejoicing ( I hope I can make it past 10am!!!)

 ⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Philippians 4:4 New International Version (NIV)

Well since it is Friday, here is just a simple thought to consider. (plus I am already jammed up with 7 and 8 am appointments)

Did you know you can’t create darkness?  It just exists.  But you can create light, and so here are some random Friday thoughts about creating light:

First an ancient chinese proverb (or so I am told, it’s still pretty cool):

Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.

And then this thought which I always find encouraging:

Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky  NIV Philippians 2:15

And finally just a little bit more:

 ^14-16Do everything readily and cheerfully—no bickering, no second-guessing allowed! Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society. Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God. Carry the light-giving Message into the night so I’ll have good cause to be proud of you on the day that Christ returns. You’ll be living proof that I didn’t go to all this work for nothing. Philippians 2:15 The Message (MSG)

Shine your light today! ( and forget about all that cursing!)

Then it got tense, and there we some mild disagreements and debates and I felt him coming back.  Who do you ask?  Me!  The selfish, short tempered, brash me.  And I could sense that others where seeing, or I guess in this case hearing him as well.  ARGH!  Now, I had a platform to stand on that was well positioned.  More than likely I may have even been in the “right”.  But really, it’s not about me, and the tone that was coming across the phone was changing the tone of the meeting in the negative in a hurry. ARGH!

Later in the day I watch a video clip about how we live lives behind veneers.  The talk presented two views the human view and the God view.  Interestingly enough the human view was about well, the human itself, and the God view was about all the other humans on this earth.  It all ended with a fantastic summation and a challenge – are we exposing the human like veneer or the God like veneer?  Is it about me, or is it about everyone else.

It seems to me that life actually works out better when we take the God like approach and focus on others.  Somehow in some way, that way always seems to have some way of making it better in the end for us!  Yet, we still want to put ourselves in the lead.  It’s quite a paradox!

Well, I hope I was able to push myself back into the background as the meeting went on.  What I do know is that the rest of the day, I felt like a black cloud of frustration was hanging over my head, since I know I let him back!  The great thing is that I have a new day to start over and let God shine in my interactions.

How about you?  Are you choosing the human like thing or the God like thing?

 ¹ Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, ² then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. ³ Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, ⁴not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

I am a little bummed that I missed Ice Cream Sandwiches Day yesterday, so here is a link to a post earlier this year about those delicious deserts.  Evidently yesterday was also Wi-Fi day (8.02.11 b/g/n/n+), and so the geek inside of me is double sad about that.

And all of that reminds me of this fascinating verse in Nehemiah

¹⁰Nehemiah told the people, ” Enjoy your good food and wine and share some with those who didn’t have anything to bring. Don’t be sad! This is a special day for the LORD, and he will make you happy and strong.” Nehemiah 8:10 Contemporary English Version (CEV)

or maybe the ending in some other versions is better:

Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” NIV

So, on this nutty day, eats some nuts, and maybe an ice cream sandwich. In fact – share them! And as always remember that the joy that comes from the Lord provides you incredible, but probably not edible, strength.

I was trying to think of some clever way to relate this to anything in the world, and I think I am failing this morning.  So, I guess, that fact that it’s IPv6 day is, well, a who cares moment.

But the fact that this day was made by the creator of the world, there is still life in the day!

So, change your IP addresses, and enjoy the day!

21-25 Thank you for responding to me;
you’ve truly become my salvation!
The stone the masons discarded as flawed
is now the capstone!
This is God’s work.
We rub our eyes—we can hardly believe it!
This is the very day God acted—
let’s celebrate and be festive!
Salvation now, God. Salvation now!
Oh yes, God—a free and full life! Psalm 118:24 The Message (MSG)

Yes, freedom.  When bonds are released and new limits are opened it is such a fantastic feeling.  The feeling of freedom and the joys of freedom are something I write about quite often - because it is so nice.  However, when it comes to spiritual freedom, sometimes, we want to stay in our bondage.  But look at this, the creator of the world says, give me your bondage:

7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7 New International Version (NIV)

This spiritual liberation, that comes oddly enough though a complete surrender is a really good thing. It makes the joy of the iPhone look like the joy you can get from a lead balloon.

Cast you anxiety on him and enjoy freedom. (oh , and then tweet about it!)

11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. John 15:11 New International Version (NIV)

What freedom!  I anticipate the that the joy he will feel as he finishes his last exam today and understand that he is free (for a while) from the confines of school and homework.  Oh, the joy of being able to do whatever he wants with no projects or major commitments hanging over his head.

There is so much joy in freedom.  I treasure the days when I am not handcuffed with a day full of schedule meetings.  We yearn for the simple days of vacations when we have no one telling us where to be and what to do. ( let me pause and reflect… oh only 18 more work days!!)  And our spirits compel us to look for something that set us free from the curse of the daily toils, and when we find it- oh what joy.

 ^16-18Whenever, though, they turn to face God as Moses did, God removes the veil and there they are—face-to-face! They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We’re free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him. (2 Corinthians 3:16-18, The Message)

As we enter the Memorial day weekend, be so thankful for those who have come before us to fight for the freedom that we enjoy in this country.  And with that also remember how that freedom facilitates access to the the spiritual freedom that comes from the Christ.

Share it!  You are free to!  Woot Woot!!

I know that when I do that I am a better spouse, father, and co worker.  So what is it still so difficult to not just chuck those people to the wind and move on with out them?  Casting aside a personal agenda for the sake of other seem so fundamentally wrong when we examine ourselves, yet is is the cry of the Christ.

¹⁶ “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” (Matthew 20:16, New International Version, ©2011)

and there’s this

²⁵ For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. (Matthew 16:25, New International Version, ©2011)

So, today, I am trying to figure out how to lose myself, how to give up on my personal agenda and how to make the others that I am blessed to be around better. Any ideas?