Defeating Daily Despair Through Fellowship

As I’ve made a commitment to search for joy in Christ, I have tried to keep my eyes open to what could help lead to this end.  A scripture I used in my Sunday School lesson last week, John 15:9-12, and the demonstraion of a dear friend leads me to a conclusion today.  Certainly not the end all, be all conclusion of finding joy, but another step in a direction that I think the Lord may use to help me be a happier, more joyful person.

Discouragement happens when we least expect it.  Life throws us curve balls that we aren’t expecting.  It’s amazing how often we attempt to make plans and they are turned upside down and we have to be “flexible.”  I have found that life is less stressful when I “roll with the punches” instead of fighting against it.  Yet I am often prone to do so…to become engrossed in my own situations and often times fret, worry, and freeze.  I absolutely become paralized in fear if a situation can’t be beat into submission with my fists or mind.  I get trapped in my own absorbed thoughts.  Yet today, a brother in Christ gave me an example of what Christ told us to do in the scripture I mentioned before.   “Abide in my love, keep my commandments…These things I have spoken to you that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full….This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.“ 

Wes Ramsey, a good friend but someone I rarely talk to, called me today while I was at work just to say that he had been thinking about me and that he had a suspicion I may be feeling discouraged, but he also wanted to let me know to hang on, God is a big God, no matter what.  Wait on the Lord through these discouragements.  It was funny, I asked how he knew I was feeling this way, and I didn’t know who he was talking to.  He said he was just talking to the Holy Spirit.  Wow.  I have no doubts he was listening to the Holy Spirit, I was indeed feeling pretty discouraged, but he didn’t have to call.  He could have went right on praying for me without me ever knowing it, but he took it a step further.  He took some more action, and he called me to encourage me.  “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.“ 

Jesus says that my joy will be full when His joy remains in me.  And in order for His joy to remain in me, I have to remain in His love.  And to remain in His love I have to obey His commands.  And He commands us to love one another.  Like Wes loved me today.  So I got to thinking, it’s amazing how little I think about myself and my troubles when I’m doing for others, whether it be praying for them, helping them, calling them, getting fellowships together for them or just giving a word of encouragement to them.  I appreciate Wes, his Sunday School class who prays for EHBC in their search for a pastor, and I appreciate my brothers and sisters in Christ.  I believe I will make it more of a habit to tell them so more often.

Did God Give Jonah Another Chance?

Wow, the last time I wrote I was feeling uncertain, feeling like Jonah, just wanting to obey…and I left it at that.

The job situation has worked out.  Despite my uncomfortableness, I’m going to work everyday and dealing daily with situations that only in the world of logistics would bring me.  God has never left my side, even though it sometimes felt lonely and so overwhelming, I am still here, thanking God that He is a merciful Lord and Father.

At the end of the book of Jonah, we see him so angry, “It IS right for me to be angry, even to death!”  He screamed to God.  I can’t imagine Jonah believed himself to be in the right when he answers the Almighty so rashly and foolishly, but he did it just the same.  Why in the world did God not zap Jonah into oblivion?  After all Jonah had been through, it appears he still does not understand God’s mercy.  God would have been just to destroy Jonah on the spot, but he doesn’t.

I’m so glad God doesn’t decide to do away with us whenever we have our little tantrums because we do not understand His plan.  I found myself several times over the past 6 months absolutely defying the Lord because I was so stressed out in my new position.  I found myself screaming in the dark, crying, having fits behind closed doors, sometimes thinking I was going out of my mind and wanting nothing more than just to get out.  A couple of times my wife believed I was on the verge of having  a nervous breakdown.  I did realize I needed to go to the doctor and get some help.   Besides that, I was acting crazy in the face of the Lord who had called me to a different ministry in life.  Now, I’m so glad he has different plans for me and my family.  I still get stressed from time to time, but God is there, He always was and is. 

I’d like to think that maybe Jonah was pretty stressed out the day he answered God so angrily, maybe, at the time, he really did want to die.  I think that maybe God understood this, and though He would’ve been just to destroy Jonah then and there, he was merciful to him and allowed him to continue in His work.  How do I know this?  Well, who else would’ve written the book of Jonah?

Me and Ole’ Jonah, Like Two Peas in a Pod

When Pastor Steve told me he would be preaching on Jonah after he wrapped up the book of Romans a couple of months ago, I had the feeling this book from God’s Word would be applying to me.  Turns out I was right.

We’re awfully hard on Jonah aren’t we.  Even non-Christians can tell us about “the man who ran” or “Jonah and the Whale” and put a negative connotation to him.  We look at Jonah and equate him with out right defiance towards God, and remember that God “punished” him for his defiance.  It’s enough to make any sinner quake in his boots if he or she would give the history of God’s Word more credit than a mere children’s story.

I feel for Jonah, and realize much of my situations relates to his.  Recently opportunities have come up that have blind sighted me.  I have a successful job, one where I am trusted, not micro-managed, make a decent wage, and I’m doing what I love.  Such was the case with Jonah, he had a successful ministry, when he spoke, people listened, and he was doing just fine in his career as a prophet until one day God blind sighted him as well. 

God told Jonah to head to Ninevah and cry out against it, to leave his comfort zone and cry out against a city that was wicked and needed to repent in order to escape the judgement of God, but they had to be warned of their sins, and Jonah was the man for the job.  The thing was, Jonah HAD to do what he didn’t want to do in order to do the job.  It cost him some pride, some discomfort (can’t imagine how comfortable being slowly digested by a fish just big enough to swallow you would be) diving into the unknown and his own understanding.

Now I have been faced with a situation in which I am VERY uncomfortable, I am afraid, panic overwhelms me on nearly a daily basis in this new situation that I believe God has called me too.  I believe I am obeying God’s will, but I do not understand why.  It makes me sick that I am so apprehensive on a daily basis, but as I learned today, it is not necessary that I understand the situation, just that I obey what I believe God’s will is.

Jonah did the same, once he was vomited by the fish, he went after his job with all he could.  Deep in his heart, he didn’t understand why God cared so much for these people, but Jonah obeyed, with very little of his own wisdom factoring into his decisions.

I hope I get it right, not making a terribly rash decision in a heat of panic, but I’m obeying…and for now, I pray that is all that’s required of me, not my understanding, and certainly not my emotion.  God help me love what He has given me to do.  Right now I’m just so uncertain….