Obedience = Joy = Celebration

I love to have a good time and people who know me know that but never growing up did I think my desire and love to having a good time and making people laugh, living in joy was a discipline. That if I could really work this as a spiritual discipline God can and will be glorified.

The older I get the more that this rings true as well, we lose the innocence of childhood where there was a celebration over finding a penny, making a cool fort or seeing a friend during recess and that pure and unabashed joy in those simple things! As we grow older those sweet things, those sweet tastes of simplicity in celebration become clouded and gray and we become jaded. I was challeneged in reading this again that I need to come with fresh eyes and a fresh heart and that comes from being obedient to Christ and sitting with him and refreshing and renewing myself with him. That pure joy from childhood I can have now, that pure joy is the joy of Christ and that is attainable now! I love to celebrate and I love being joyful. I so often tell my students that idea of discipline = freedom and I think of that here that obedience = joy. As I obey and do all that Christ's calls for my life I will experience joy and not joy that the world knows but Christ's joy! What could be better!

I love the quote on page 195, " The decision to set the mind on higher things of life is an act of will. That is why celebration is a discipline. It is not something that falls on our heads. It is a result of a consciously chosen way of thinking and living. When we choose this way, the healing and redemption in Christ will break into the inner recesses of our lives and relationships and the inevitable result will be joy." That is what I want, I want to set my mind on higher things, I want to make the choice to seek Christ and HIS joy not the joy that the world wants me to have and enjoy Christ's celebration!