Life goes SPLAT

I have been playing with a splat ball. If you have never played with one they are one of the coolest things ever. You throw the ball against the wall and....SPLAT.... it looks like it goes all over the wall. Then the ball reshapes itself into it's original form. The one I have looks like a tomato. So cool!
I think this toy is the perfect example of life. So many times it seems that our lives go SPLAT and that we are never going to be whole again. Maybe it's sickness, maybe death, maybe divorce. There are so many examples of how life can go SPLAT, and if we are not careful then our lives will never take form again. We will continue to live life like we have been thrown up against a wall instead of being reformed into who we are. By ourselves we cannot continue to survive the eventual wall that we get thrown into, but with Jesus the process of being reformed is easy. We have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5 :22-23). These are called the fruits of the Spirit and all that means is that as you live life devoted to Jesus then the byproduct is all of the above. Even when life goes SPLAT. Especially when life goes SPLAT! When we take our eyes off of Jesus and try to reform ourselves, the eventual outcome is that our lives are going to be jacked up. If we let Jesus reform us, then our lives will be made whole again. No matter how hard we are thrown up against the wall.

Full of It

Are you full of it? Not that, the other thing. Joy. The Crossing is doing a series on Joy, so back to my question -are you full of it? Joy is....what?

• Joy is having peace when you should have none
• Joy is the realization that your circumstances do not dictate your life, you do!
• Joy is having the hope of Jesus
• Joy is a chose made by you
• Joy is NOT a feeling

Before, during, and after cancer I had joy. Cancer did not dictate my life. Joy did, and I had to chose joy because everything else around screamed that I should be angry, sad, bitter, etc. Don't get me wrong, cancer was tough and I did have my moments of anger and sadness, but my heart always worshipped God. Jesus was a anchor point that my heart grabbed onto. He was the focus of my life because there were many times that I could have played the blame game and asked why. I had joy because God's Spirit is anchored in my life.

I am full of it. Happily so.

Don't worry, be Happy

It's not just a song, it's a way to live. Jesus gives you peace and joy, even when the "you know what" hits you square in the face. I have had cancer twice. Sucked both times. I also had peace and joy in my heart, and that is what separates me from someone who does not know Jesus. Jesus gives you joy when you should have none. I also had to choose to have it. If I had focused on my circumstances alone then I would have been S.O.L. I chose to focus on God and I had joy and peace, to the point that a nurse even said to me, "you know, people usually freak out about now." I cannot explain the peace, other then it was the Spirit of God. If you have never had that peace then I am sorry, your life sucks. I am not saying that it was easy, it was cancer for craps sake. It was hard to go through radiation, and to loose body parts. It sucked hardcore. In my heart I had joy, even though my circumstance at the time screamed out that I shouldn't.

If you have ever blamed God for how your life has turned out, have you ever stopped to think that God is not to blame.
You must not have known that He wants to give you peace.
You must not have known that if you give God the finger, then it's not his fault that your life has sucked.
You must not have known that God is for you, not against you.
You must not have realized that when your life was awesome and there were no problems that you didn't blame God because your life was great.
So why do it when the shit hits the fan (yes, I said it). Pain is NOT going to go away in your life, how you deal with it can change. You can have peace in the pain if you let Jesus lead your life. I promise you that is true because He did it for me.