8 Days Left - Finding Joy among moving boxes

I mentioned yesterday that to wear joy you have to try on gratitude.

Moving is the ultimate test of your marriage and your priorities (do I hear an AMEN!?).  It quickly shows you how much you own and forces you to ask the question, "why do we think this possession is worth keeping in our life?"

Heidi and I love purging things….but I'll tell you we haven't been able to purge very much because most of what we own, we use!  How encouraging!

Maybe it was because for many years we lived by what we called our "10 rule" -- own no more than 10 of anything.  Or maybe it was because we save more than we spend and live on a budget.  Or maybe it was because we've never made enough to acquire excess. Or maybe it's because we've never lived in a place larger than 1100 square feet!

So today we are thankful for what we own -- all gifts, all blessing, all more than we deserve.  Nothing in excess -- all signs of of daily bread.  Thanks, Lord.
Follow @joeandheidi

9 Days Left - Looking for Joy

Works of pride, by self-called creators, with their premium on originality, reduce the Creation to novelty — the faint surprises of minds incapable of wonder.

Pursuing originality, the would-be creator works alone. In loneliness one assumes a responsibility for oneself that one cannot fulfill.

Novelty is a new kind of loneliness. (Wendell Berry, What are People For)

What does this quote mean to us?…wait a second.

We all know that joy comes from gratitude.  When you can bring to mind the things you are grateful for, you begin to notice a joy that isn't dependant on circumstance arising in your heart.  As we begin 2015 coming out of the most unsettling year of our lives (in a really good way), we are beginning to talk about all the things we are grateful for.  We want….need….to experience God's joy.

OK…now back to the quote….

Here is what we are grateful for at the start of 2015:  Jesus isn't asking us to be original or to create something that hasn't been done before.  That type of novelty is a kind of loneliness that Jesus isn't requiring of us.  He's asking us to join his missionary movement in Fresno, to stand with His Church and His people and plant neighbourhood focused churches that impact their neighbourhood and make life-long followers of Jesus.  (God has been doing it since here:  Matthew 28:18­‐20; Acts 2:41‐47; Acts 16:9,12; Titus 1:5ff; Romans 15:19, 23…..and he hasn't stopped since). 

We are wearing joy by trying on gratitude.  We like how it fits.  

p.s. that's Joe running into VERY cold water this morning to celebrate the start of a new year.  He was wearing a Canada hockey jersey.  We are so grateful for nearly 10 years in Canada.  This years' gratitude started COLD.  

Follow @joeandheidi