Triple C News - APRIL 28
Hey, everyone!
Hope you’re having a joy-filled day! And I hope…
“Hang on a sec…Joy-filled? Seriously, Tom? I mean, ‘joyful’ is reasonable…Or, ‘I hope you have some joy today…’ But ‘joy-FILLED’? Every second? That’s asking a lot!”
I can see that.
I mean, not EVERY second can be joyful, I guess.
Like, you have to sleep sometimes.
And to be quite frank, I’ve had to struggle a little more than usual for joy in my heart lately.
I wasn’t really sure why.
I thought…
“Time with the Lord in the morning? Check.”
“Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever, so it’s not Him! It must be me!” I thought.
Then I remembered what I forgot to remember!!
Everyday, I try to remember a few basics. Ready?
1) “My job is to serve.” If I focus on helping, I’m in my lane.
2) “My goal, however is to please God.” His is the only smile I really live for.
3) “My time is today.” Today is the only day I need to think about.
4) “My strength is weakness.” I feel His help the most when I feel the most helpless.
5) “My fight is for joy.” If I’m going to have it, I’ll have to fight for it.
If joy is escaping me, I’m usually forgetting one of these.
“Hmmm…Which of these am I forgetting to remember?”
And then I remembered!
I’m forgetting #3!
“My time is today!!”
After all, Jesus said, “Give NO thought for tomorrow!”
And Paul said, “Forget what is behind!”
In fact, two cups of “regrets about the past”
(or fresh “shame” can be substituted if you’re out of regrets)
and three tablespoons of “dread about the future”, stirring in one quart of “doom scrolling” the news on the internet, and you have the perfect recipe for anxiety!
God gives grace for today!
And tomorrow He’ll give me grace for that day when it becomes “today”
So “today” was the only day I should have thought about yesterday. One day at a time!
I remember the last time I went thru a patch of this.
It was when I was doing this chaplain training program at UT Medical…
With all the assignments I’ve had to think about…
that were due “next Thursday” or “next Monday”…
And having to remember what my schedule would be for church stuff and hospital commitments in the days ahead…
I was thinking a lot about the future and the week(s) ahead and I forgot that…
“my time is today”!!
One assignment that had me focused on the future, was getting ready for a big day on the horizon.
On that Monday, I had to be at the hospital at 8:00am for classes until 4:00pm and then I had the over-night, “chaplain on-call” duty.
Which meant that for the first time, I’d be there from 8:00am to 8:00am!
There’s a place to sleep if you can grab some, but it’s busy at night with folks needing a chaplain in loads of places and cases!
Tina and I are rarely up past 9:45 so I was honestly a little anxious, thinking ahead.
But, when that Monday finally came…
my classes that day were really interesting, with lots of stuff to learn!
And the on-call shift had me running around…
all over the place…
literally all night!
Trying my best to be a help and encouragement to everyone who needed some!
It was intense and emotional!
And when it was done, in spite of the fact that I’d been worried about it, I drove home sleepy and, strangely…happy!
And I could tell my joy was back.
“Hey, joy! Where you been, buddy?”
And then I knew!
With everything I had to do that day and night…
I’d been intensely focused…
for 24 hours…
on nothing but…
“Today!”