Today I Choose to be Happy!

Greetings,

I have found on my journey home that life has a way of socking you in the gut!  Just when you think you have things all planned out and you believe that you are traveling in the right direction...Wham!  I write that because I had planned to make sure that I was very prompt with my posts.  Then, WHAM, life socked me in the gut.  Life is like that though and so I want to share my "gut socking" with you in hopes that, in my misery, you might find comfort....and, perhaps, laughter!

Last week I received a call from Horber funeral home.  John Horber, a member of my congregation, told me that an individual had passed away and that, since I am filling in for the Methodist pastor while she is away, he was wondering if I could officiate at the service.  I told him that I would be glad to do it.  Then he told me that it was a 26 year old who had died suddenly.  Obviously my whole attitude changed.  Not to say that I don't have some sadness in officating funerals.  Services are always filled with some sort of grief.  Due to their very nature some grief is inevitable.  However funerals of those who are elderly give family and friends a chance to remember the long life an elderly person has lived.  In the case of a 26 year old the grief is centered around the fact that the young person's life has been cut short.  I don't want to spend the time in this blog to discuss and debate the purpose and practicalities of funerals.  What I do want talk about is the way that God challenges us to enjoy and rejoice in the day we have been given.

Being asked to officiate the funeral and the sadness that accompanied it would not have been that hard if it were not for the fact that I had been preparing to publish my next post.  You see, David Ponder's next historical figure just happened to be Anne Frank.  For those of you who remember your history Anne Frank was a young girl who spent months hiding in an attic away from the cruel clutches of the German Nazi regime.  Their circumstances were very hard as they struggled to survive.  Yet, when David Ponder meets Anne she shares with him his next statement for success...TODAY I CHOOSE TO BE HAPPY!

You can imagine, with my mind focusing on the upcoming funeral services of this young man, how I reacted to writing anything regarding this next statement.  Yet, within the book Anne shares with David the idea that, even though she is faced with great hardship, she chooses to be happy.  Notice that she doesn't tell David that she wakes up everyday finding herself in a happy mood.  Nor does she tell him that she is happy with her circumstances in life.  What she does tell him is that she chooses to be happy.  I finda great difference between that statement and the previous ones.

I began thinking to myself that I let many of the circumstance of my life dictate my happiness.  Goodness knows that I have had the opportunity on my journey home to fall into the abyss of sadness.  To be honest with you, there have been times when I have fallen into that abyss.  Only through the grace of God and the love of friends and family have I found the way out.  Still, I am amazed at the simplicity of what Anne shares with David.  Yes, her life is hard and yes, she and her family is struggling.  But in the midst of those struggles she chooses to be happy.  In essence she is saying that I am in control of what I feel and how I feel it.  I know that some emotions come upon us in a moments notice.  Some emotions are instantaneous and, eyt, we are still responsible for how we deal with those emotions.

In the middle of preparing for the funeral I asked myself and God (maybe not in that order) how was it that I was suppose to choose to be happy while this family grieved.  This is what I got from the big guy: You aren't supposed to be happy about what they are going through you are suppose to be happy that you have been chosen to be the one to help them through it!  BAM!!!!.....another sock to the gut!

I am sure that I had no idea what He was talking about and I am even more sure that I pretended that I did just so I wouldn't look like an idiot in fron of the creator of the universe.  Over the days, however, I began to get a glimpse about what God had meant and what Anne had meant as well.  Through everything we go through we have a choice to find that blessing but finding the blessing isn't always enough.  Choosing everday to be happy is a way of life.  Being positive about the negatives is more that just a montra.  True happiness, I believe, comes from the realization that we are children of a God who loves us so much that He would send His son to die on a cross just so we could get closer to Him.

Happiness is different things to different people.  What might make me happy, say the Cubs winning the World Series, might not do anything for a St. Louis Cardinals fans.  I have a tendancy to think that placing my happiness on the Cubs winning the world series is alot like planning my financial freedom on the fact that I am going to find the leprechaun's pot of gold at the end of his rainbow!  Nevertheless, my point is that true happiness lies inside of us in the presence of God's spirit.  As a Christian that should be my focus.  I should wake each day with the happiness of God's presence in my life not basing it on whether my life is going well or poorly.

I challenge you to look at today differently.  I challenge you to wake up tomorrow choosing to be happy.  Seek God's presence in your life.  Choose to recognize the difficulties but don't let them dictate the level of joy in your life.  Continue your journey home!  Through all of the twists and turns, ups and downs, ins and outs, there is happiness to be found each and every day.  You just have to choose to see it!

Until we meet again!

Blessings,

Derek