It doesn’t get more cliche than that. But it’s true.
If you haven’t read my two previous blogs from this month,
you might want to take a gander for a little background on what has lead up to
this; the fall and rise.
So, believe it or not, I have learned even more about joy
this month. In my last blog I wrote, “Joy will come, eventually,” but I don’t
think that thinking was right. I don’t think that joy is something we sit
around and wait to return. I have concluded that joy is having proper
perspective and choosing to have a good attitude.
The thing is, my perspective, my focus, had shifted from
being on God constantly, to being on myself. “I’m uncomfortable. I hate bucket
showers. I don’t want to eat rice anymore. My feet hurt from trudging so much.”
Now, don’t get me wrong, it is perfectly legitimate to hate bucket showers and
not want to eat rice anymore; I’m not going to force myself to love taking
freezing cold showers in rain water in a bucket. The thing is, my mindset had
gotten too focused on me and how much I hated everything, I had lost sight of
God, who He is and what He is doing in my life and through my life.
So step 1 was to turn it back to praise.
Then I simply had to choose to have a better attitude. I can
still not enjoy what I’m doing as long as I’m willing to do it anyway. But
there is something about knowing that God is taking joy in what I’m doing that
makes me excited to do these things. Think about it, the creator of the
universe is probably having a good ole joyful belly laugh watching this little
uncomfortable American girl awkwardly go door-to-door and try to preach His gospel in
Africa.
