Psalm 30:5 "For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning."
I overheard a conversation while standing in line at a gas station yesterday that concluded with this phrase, "Remember, don't let anyone steal your joy!" I wasn't trying to eavesdrop, but when I heard this person loudly proclaim it on the phone I thought to myself what a powerful statement.
How many times has somebody with a bad attitude stolen your joy? I can remember dozens of times being on the mountain, feeling good about things and thinking that I had every T crossed and every I dotted only to have someone with a bad attitude knock the wind out of my sails. It is very easy to have your joy taken from you especially when you're not expecting the unexpected to happen. And most of the time that's just it-when you least expect it the joy stealer comes along and strips away your smile, your laughter, and your joy.
I am a very serious person, but I also love to laugh and have a good time. I will usually use a joke or two to get a point across in a sermon or tell a funny story to help people understand that tough times don't last, but happy people do. However, at my last church and even at my current church I have had people jump me with this thing, "You shouldn't laugh in church or tell jokes. You should be serious all the time." Man, when you are already drained from delivering your soul to the congregation and you get hit with something like that it will quickly steal your joy.
My first thought is this. The wise man said in Proverbs 17:22 "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones." I believe one of our biggest problems in the church is that we have to many broken spirits. Their bones have dried up and they have spiritual arthritis. It's usually these people that ruin your day and steal your joy.
Some of the fondest memories I have are of funny things that have happened in church. I served one church where we had to lock the surplus toliet paper away because an elderly lady who rode one of our buses would steal it every Sunday. She would hide it under her clothing every week until we got wise to the situation. It was so funny to see her leave the church each Sunday looking like she had had plastic surgery because of all the enlarged places on her body that weren't there when she came to church.
Another time when we were having a Jericho march around the sanctuary and a lady shouted off her hairpiece. The style at that time was a beehive with a long flow of hair that went down the back below the neckline. One lady that was marching behind her and in complete time with the music and never stopping picked it up and put it back on her head. The only problem was she put it on backwards and blinded the poor lady. It was all I could do to keep the serivce going.
I could tell you hundreds of funny things that I have seen and had happen to me during church services, but space will not permit. All I can say is that God does have a sense of humor and the more you laugh the less time you have to cry or to be depressed about life.
(Continued tomorrow)
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