Titles - the superficial signals

Dawn breaks over the horizon. Streams of sunshine bounce through my window and dance on my sleepy eyelids. Morning beckons, luring me out of bed and into the trap that nature has set. I step out the door into the frigid arms of winter... winter? In Florida? This is unexpected and most unwelcome. Colonies of frost merged to form a plane of ice on my windshield. My car's engine roars to life and I sit huddled in the driver's seat waiting for the moment I can turn the dial to maximum red and actually feel summer coming through my vents. Success! The morning commute can begin!

Now I sit with my routine morning coffee. My hopes are full today. They are saturated with expectancy of something great. God blesses consistent preparation and this week it's more than necessary; it's imperative. 

There's much to accomplish this week, this month, this year. If I can't manage a stable system of planning, preparing and implementing, then the goals that were so nobly established for 2012 will become the forgotten failures when I take time for reflection in 2013... It's not easy to manufacture this discipline...

There are so many distractions. More than that, there are so many irritations! Waking up early 30 miles from where you need to be and having to venture out in weather that's 40-50 degrees short of pleasant is not how I would choose to begin a productive day. If I had to choose I would rather my team of servants wake me up by singing "Don't Stop Believin'" while gently massaging my back and scalp with heated pads of cashmere and serving me a rich cup of hot chocolate. Yes, my choices commonly rest in the realm of extravagant improbability, but that's ok... point is, irritations are almost inevitable (until I hit it big on the lottery and hire that team of servants). 

Irritations and distractions annoy most people and that's a normal response. But I believe that these conditions and disturbances don't need to be detrimental to the productivity to which we all aspire. 

Consider this: It's only when the oyster swallows an irritating piece of sand, a particle that scrapes and stings the soft insides, that a solution is discovered and something marvelously valuable is created. Pearls are the result of overcoming irritating distractions. Without these adverse conditions in our lives, we would be immensely productive, yes, but the greatest achievements would probably be lackluster in comparison to what's possible with just a little bit of effort and perseverance.

But when do irritants simply become walls of negativity that deserve to be avoided rather than being absorbed?

The only thing I can understand fully is that not every idiom and stellar illustration serves ALL situations well. I've discovered this week that there are some situations that are better left to more capable hands. They are not for me to meddle with. They are not for me to take on. No matter how I feel about these situations. No matter how badly I would want to take this principle of applying myself and turn a bad situation around, I need to step back. The irritant that comes from realizing this is what's to be internalized, not the actual situation... Some things are too big. Some situations are too great. Some things just need to be let go and allow God to handle it. 

New thought.

Tomorrow is Valentine's day. The day that Western culture has determined to celebrate love, romance, and general altruism between guys and gals. Sweethearts get a chance to be extra giddy. Star crossed lovers a chance to dream of possibilities. Single people another opportunity to experience maximum misery. Stalkers a chance to be sweet... in a creepy way. And money-minded get a chance to profit from the emotions of others. It doesn't matter which perspective you have on the "holiday" because someone is always going to contend with your point of view (Another VERY irritating situation).

Why do people place such an emphasis on being right over being happy? As if somehow being right will cause happiness? As if making others unhappy and irritated with your perfected and enlightened point of view will somehow cause them to "see the light" and abandon their witless ignorance and embrace the cold, hard facts. Why must we abandon joy in order to be right?

Someone once criticized others for celebrating. Their argument: How can we be happy and celebrate and enjoy a feast when others are starving, dying, living in misery? How can we rightly do this when our fellow man, our brothers and sisters, suffer? - In essence, if you're expressing your happiness and celebrating (something those who suffer in depravity cannot do to our extent) you live in ignorance and are unsympathetic to the needs and feelings of those less fortunate. 

The goal of this argument seems to be to compound misery. The Bible does tell us to mourn with those who mourn. But it also tells us to celebrate with those who have something to celebrate! Some seem to think that as long as suffering exists, we must never take a moment to enjoy life and spend all our time mourning for those destitute and hopeless. As admirable a notion as that is, it's wrong.

Christ came so that our love and joy might be complete. That in ALL things we might be able to rejoice in the hope that is Christ Jesus. Do we join our hearts in compassion and humility when we encounter the suffering of others? Yes, that is what is expected from Love. But our default attitude should be expectancy and joy. Celebration of the soul because the greatest news that's ever been conceived has come to fruition. The cross has yielded redemption from eternal sorrow and misery. 

The gloomy brooders remain ignorant of this reality. Their focus is on the disease not the cure. Their focus is on death not the life that has been given. They feel justified and take pleasure in their empathic misery. As they feel for others they avoid the misplaced guilt of enjoying life. Perhaps they also avoid the truth that God hasn't fulfilled their hearts as they expected. Perhaps they simply haven't discovered that a heart can simultaneously exist as broken for others and completely whole in the presence of Christs radiant joy. 

Whatever the reason, whatever the distraction, however irritating others' points of view remain, I cling to this; Christ IS the good news! In him our joy is complete and stronger than circumstance, beyond the misery that this world places indiscriminantly. 

The only question that remains is this: How are you going to share that joy?