Parents, Joy is high octane fuel for us… In what I call the olive press years of my life, squeezed between the pressing needs of my young growing family and the demands of ministry, and some other important life priorities, some things got pushed to the back of the plate. Checking the gas gauge on my car on a regular basis was one of those. Between taking kids to school, sports, and dance, hospital and funeral visitation, local denominational connections, trips to check on extended family, etc, I was known to have the gas gauge frequently below a ¼ of a tank most of the time. One morning taking my son to school, we were almost to school when the engine stopped. I wondered what had happened and yes, a glance at the dash indicated I was out of gas… Fortunately I was going down a hill and there was a gas station at the bottom of the hill on the other side of the street… If the Good Lord was willing and no oncoming traffic stopped me, I figured I could coast right up to the pump and I prayed a quick prayer for those very things to happen. God answered and I coasted in, happy and celebrating at God’s provision. I looked at my son and saw some distress on his face… an unintended consequence of not checking my fuel level and running out of gas.
If we get too caught up in the tasks we are responsible for, we can run out of the fuel God designed for us to run on, Joy. We get some Joy in our tank when someone is glad to be with us. The greatest source of unending Joy is God, He is always glad to be with us. We can get some joy from other people who are glad to be with us too. This source is not always as reliable unless we have some high Joy people around us; count them all as blessings if you do. We can get some joy from pets. My dog is almost always glad to be with us, wagging her whole body when we walk in the door. We can sometimes enjoy ourselves when we are glad to be doing a favorite hobby or activity. The great prophet and rebuilder of Jerusalem, Nehemiah, was concerned that the people he loved were sad and depressed, so he reminded them that God’s Joy is their best fuel. He says, “... the joy of the LORD is your strength." Nehemiah 8:10b (CSBBible) Sometimes amidst our serious circumstances and the tasks that fill our calendar we can forget to check if we have enough joy fuel to give us the strength to make it through. Our engine can run a little while on stress, fear, anger, but it eventually destroys our engine. All those negative emotions have unintended consequences on those we love and all of our relationships too. We gotta check the gauges, before we have to coast into the pump, or worse, be towed to the station. We gotta go to the Source of Joy, then we will have the strength for our journey! Take time to hang out with Jesus, He’s always glad to be with you.
Hang in there people! God is glad to be with us! I’m praying for you all!
