Thought For the Day

"Joy is the serious business of heaven.”

                                  C.S. Lewis

A Valentine's Day Challenge

1Cor. 13:1   If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

1Cor. 13:4   Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 

1Cor. 13:8   Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part; 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. 11 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. 13 But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love. 

Perisseia Meeting Canceled Thursday, Feb. 13

Perisseia, the women's growth group that meets Thursday evenings at Windsor Chapel, will not meet on Thursday, Feb. 13, due to the winter storm.  We will resume next week!

Thought For The Day

When we pursue peace at all costs, it costs us our peace.

Thought For the Day

"It takes very little energy to stoop to hypocrisy."
 
                                                        Jeff Mallett

Happiness in the New Year

On New Year’s Eve, I had the pleasure of encountering one of my favorite cashiers at our local grocery store as I completed my shopping.  This young man is not only extremely competent and fast, he is helpful and friendly.  As I left, he wished me a good day and a happy new year.  I appreciated his cheerful good wishes, and the positive attitude of the other patrons indicated that others were looking for a happy new year as well. 

I want a happy new year along with everyone else.  I love the pleasures that I associate with feelings of happiness, and our good and loving God invented and instituted many of them.  The pleasures of relationship, sex, and food and drink all have God’s name on them.  I love interacting with our pets, I thoroughly enjoy playing games on Lumosity, and I am known to indulge in more than an occasional bowl of ice cream.  But as I entered the parking lot, I also realized that happiness is transitory and temporary.  God wants more for me.  Our Master wants me to experience no less than the peace that passes human understanding and the deep joy that comes as I partake in His nature and participate in His kingdom’s work.

The question is, “Do I want what God wants for me?  Do I want more than happiness?”  Christians often picture the Christian life as one of discipline, of controlling our desires.  To be sure, this is a component of a life of faith.  But C.S. Lewis makes this observation:

            If we consider the unblushing promises of reward 

           and the staggering nature of the rewards promised

           in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds 

           our desires not too strong, but too weak.  We are 

           half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and 

           sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like 

           an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies 

           in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by 

           an offer of a holiday at the sea.  We are far too easily 

           pleased.”

 Happiness is wonderful, but if I stop there, if I allow myself to be satisfied with those pleasures that make me happy, I will miss the deep joy and peace that I could experience as I become more like Christ and exercise the gifts He has given me for His purposes and His glory.

The Declaration of Independence tells us that we are entitled to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”  That is a good foundation for a republic that respects the lives and rights of its citizens, but it is an incomplete recipe for success for those who have committed their lives to Christ.  Happiness is neither the means nor the end of a life of faith. It is not a measure of success.  Moments and seasons of happiness are gifts from our loving God in our journey toward Him. 

Our Lord has no objection to happiness as long as it does not interfere with His greater desires for us—the deep joy and peace we experience as we become more like Christ and exercise the gifts He has given us for His purposes and His glory.  More often than we would like, though, happiness gets in the way of God’s purposes, and we are called to endure trials and meet challenges as we follow our Lord.  As we begin this new year and face the cold, gray, and damp New Jersey winter, let us not be discouraged by the times when we are experiencing an apparent lack of happiness.  Instead, may we enjoy the times of happiness we experience as we pursue that which has eternal value and keep our eyes fixed on the Source of all good and all good gifts.