One Week with Bare Naked Ladies and I'm Sorry! - 28 Day Joy Challenge – Day 8 – Purity 1064

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.org or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning! Today's photo of a picnic bench underneath a pine tree on the shores of Lake Ontario comes to us from yours truly, as I captured the scene back on November 10th, 2022, behind Johnson Hall on the campus of SUNY Oswego, as I decided to make an overnight tour stop to the city of my alma mater during my pilgrimage out west to serve as a volunteer at the Evening with David Jeremiah event in Buffalo and stopped on campus long enough to catch a few shots of the lake before I simultaneously felt that I had to hit the road and that my college days at SUNY Oswego were long gone and that I didn't belong there. To echo the sentiments in the lyrics from Radiohead's '90s classic Creep, I was afraid that some coed would think, "I'm a creep, I'm a weirdo, what the hell am I doing here?" I don't belong here. So I moved on, knowing that in some ways you can never go home again. Um, well, it's Friday and I am back at my place down by the river after doing a one-night stay at my countryside home in Easton, uh, because of my shifted tour and to spend a little time, a bit of time with my wife Tammy Lynn to celebrate her birthday. And even though it is Friday, I'm not necessarily feeling those those end-of-the-workweek thrills that would cause me to shout, "Friday night!" à la Beavis and Butt-Head, because I have to work tomorrow, making Friday Thursday and my weekend reduced to a single day on Sunday. But you won't catch me griping too much because I did have the day off yesterday, and despite being a little disappointed in the— at the cliffhanger ending of the latest installment of the Spider-Man franchise, Across the Spider-Verse, I did manage to enjoy my time off from work and got some much-needed rest, which I was reminded is a necessary companion to our effort— efforts at seeking joy. On the way back to River House yesterday, I streamed a teaching from Debra Walk's Joy Set— Joy Reset conference, where Nick harangue spoke about the brain science of joy, in which he balanced the good news that we could increase our capacity for joy no matter how old we, we are, with the provision that we have to take time to rest in between to let our capacities for joy to increase. He likened increasing the mental capacity for our joy buckets in our brain to exercising our physical muscles of our bodies, pointing out that muscle growth happens during the in-between resting periods between exercise— physical exertion, and that if we exercise our bodies all the time without rest, we will see less growth. So yesterday I got some much-needed rest, napping before, after, and maybe a little during my trip to the movies. And now I feel refreshed and ready for the challenges of a new day and for some more joy-building exercises. And that brings us to our current series where I'm walking through the 28-Day Joy Challenge because we are encouraging ourselves and others, you, to find peace in our lives by increasing our joy, our capacity for joy,, and by building our emotional resilience through simple practices of quieting and appreciation. The 28-Day Joy Challenge is based on Dr. Marcus Warner and Chris Corsi's latest book, The Four Habits of Joy-Filled People, and you can sign up to take it for free and purchase a variety of books from Warner and Corsi on the topic joy by going to fourhabits.org. So let's jump into day 8. Which will direct us to reflect on the past and how it can give us joy. Reflect on the past and how it gives us joy. Sorry about that. This is a little frenetic stuff today here as we get things done and as we're running out of time. Anyway, the 28-Day Joy Challenge states Day 8: Reflecting on the Past. Welcome to Day 8 of the 28 Days to Joy Challenge. Today's encouragement: you may have noticed that practicing joy and rest have given your mind time to bring up other less pleasant feelings. If that— if this happens, don't fret. This is normal. But here is what you can do to help. For each exercise, try to focus on memories, experiences, or people that bring joy or peace without any splinters of pain. If you notice pain coming up during an exercise, acknowledge the feeling and then switch your attention to a person or memory that is not tied to pain or sadness. Today's practice, Exercise 8. Today we are focusing on practicing awareness of our own emotions through quieting. How this exercise will benefit you: learning how to slow down enough to listen to our body and emotions can be rare for us, but the awareness of ourselves that comes from practice can greatly reduce stress and overwhelm. Exercise steps: Find a comfortable position where you can rest. Play one of your favorite songs from a different stage of your life. Close your eyes while you listen to the song. Notice how this experience feels during, before, during, and after. What thoughts and emotions do you notice? Share your experience with a friend. Have fun with this exercise. We pick up tomorrow with more joy practice. That's from our friends at 4habits.org. Anyway, well, the reason the beginning of today's blog post started with a view of from my alma mater and some '90s references is because today's joy exercise took me for a trip down memory lane. Unlike the previous days of this 28-day joy challenge, this morning I went in cold because I didn't peek to see what the exercise was covering, so I just read the instructions and didn't think about them too much and just jumped right in. And jumped right in like a fraternity brother being thrown into the icy waters of Lake Ontario for being a little too overzealous in pledging the newest class of brothers. Who, me? Come on, fellas, we're all friends here. Brothers? Ah! Anyway, uh, choose a favorite— yeah, did that happen? Sure did. Uh, anyway, choose a favorite song from a different stage of my life. Oh Brother. So I randomly opened up my iTunes on my phone and spun the dial and let it stop randomly at an artist, and I would just pick a song and listen to it with no preparation or contemplation and would just see what would happen. I didn't have time. I wanted to get it done. Uh, the roulette wheel of chance didn't go far as it just got to the B's of artists, and given the choice between Barbra Streisand and Bare Naked Ladies, I decided that the Canadian '90s band had a better chance of representing a different stage of my life than Babs. So I clicked on them and discovered I only had one, one, one of their songs in that folder anyway. Their 1998 Rapid Fire Frenetic frantic hit "One Week." One week you can blah blah blah. Yeah, it's that song. Without thinking twice, I played the song and was reminded of my college days and later, at this very point in writing this, discovered the mind's ability to fashion false memories when certain aspects of our past are quote unquote "close enough." While I was listening to the song, I fondly remembered my college partying days and had vivid memories of certain college friends and old familiar haunts of the Oswego party scene. I remembered old City Hall on Water Street in the summer specifically, and the familiar cast of characters of fraternity brothers and sorority sisters that I had spent most of my time with. I felt the joy of youthful exuberance and remembered how passionately my friends and I embraced the night and danced and sang to the music while looking for thrills wherever the evening would take us. But just before the song ended and immediately afterward, I experienced some deep grief, guilt, and shame as I mourned for my younger self when I remembered just how much fear I lived with and lived in during those days. I was afraid of the future, so I partied too much. Because I partied too much, I was afraid of the future. I was afraid of being alone. But was sometimes anxiety-ridden because I didn't know what to say when I was in the company of others. My social anxiety led to drinking, which caused me to be more social and less inhibited and consequently less in control. So I was also afraid of what I might do if I got too drunk. I wanted to find love, but unless I was drunk, I was nervous around women. I was afraid of rejection, but I was also afraid of being in a committed relationship. I loved the nightlife, but I was afraid of running into violence. Drunken brawls do happen, and I was afraid, even after I was legal, of the police. I was afraid of being drunk. I was afraid of losing my mind. I was afraid of dying, but at the same time thought that might be a better alternative to living. As I was completely unprepared for it. The quiet desperation, fear, guilt, and shame of the party scene is never highlighted in those college party movies, but those moments were there just as much, if not more, than the circumstantial happiness of collegiate community and euphoric experiences of youth, drugs, sex, and alcohol. So, I guess these thoughts were the splinters of pain that the Joy Challenge instructions warned us about. Didn't read that part before jumping into it. And that's the thing about my past. It is this unbalanced mess of joy, quote unquote joy, it's more circumstantial happiness really, and fear. I had many friends, was well liked and had good times, but my relational skills were minimal. And all my relationships were pretty shallow and were based on mutual interest in partying. And, and so when the party was over, I didn't have much to say and found myself alone a lot, as I didn't really trust anyone. But luckily, those years are long gone now, and I now focus on the fact that the Lord has saved me and remade me, as I have been set free from my addictions and all those negative emotions. Depression, anger, and fear that come with a double-minded life. So I focused on, you know, after that I focused on who I am today. Thank God for keeping me safe and leading me out of the darkness of my ignorance and addictions. And I thanked him all, uh, I thanked him for all those old friends that I did have, uh, even if they— we weren't the closest friends and may be separated because of time or distance or because of who I am in Christ now. I love them and I pray for them and I pray and pray that the Lord would show himself to them and bring them into his kingdom if they aren't there already. Because I know just, I know full well just how lost we can be when we think we are quote-unquote good people. Or that we think we know what matters in life but don't go to church or have quote-unquote religion. I, I had so many passionate, witty, and beautiful friends then, and, and some are still my friends today on social media anyway, but I know they never mentioned the name of Jesus Christ unless it was a curse word, and pray that one day they will name him the Lord of their lives. Oh, as for the false memories, I could have sworn that song "One Week" was one of the bar songs during my times in Oswego and that it reminded me of my college— and that it reminded me of my college friends, but I graduated in 1994. The song didn't come out until 1998, so I never sang along with or danced to that music with my friends while in school. I did go to a few alumni weekends and weddings after the college days where that song may have been played, but the vivid memories that came to mind this morning were just my beleaguered mind trying to put things together that were close in their associations but far from each other in reality. Crazy, huh? Anyway, make sure you have a clear picture of your life and make sure you have Jesus as your Lord and Savior, uh, he will show you the truth and the way to everlasting life. Um, he will show you, he will show you the truth and the way, and the way to everlasting life in his, in his kingdom, and true peace, uh, and joy in his presence, uh, when you make the decision to walk and talk with him until you get there. Um, as for the Bible verse of the day, uh, due to time constraints and the fact that I misplaced my resource, um, there is no Bible verse from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men today. So read the Bible on your own or jump into chapter 8 of A.W. Pink's The Holy Spirit below. And as always, I do invite all to go to M.t. Clark's where I always share mt4christ.org, where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from A.W. Pink's The Holy Spirit, um, as we begin chapter 8, which is on the advent of the Spirit and the importance of the advent of the Spirit. You know, the advent means, you know, the arrival, I guess. You know, it— the Holy Spirit comes And, you know, what's that about? Well, Christ talked to his disciples about that. He said it would be a better thing for the Holy Spirit to come than for them to have the presence of Jesus in their life, which is, you know, hard to believe. But if you walk in the Spirit and experience the Holy Spirit's guiding, you know what Jesus was talking about, that he's literally in us, dwells within us, and he's with us to help us guide us when we turn to the Lord in prayer. The Holy Spirit reveals things to us in the Word of God that, you know, encourages our walk, strengthens us, and not for nothing, he'll give us intuitions of what we should do. He'll lead us into all truth and show us things to come. Um, that's a life in the Spirit. And if you don't know about it, you've got to start praying to the Lord and listening, um, you know, listening for his guidance. And his guidance can always be found in the Bible, so So we recommend Bible study, even though we didn't share a Bible verse today, because that's where the wisdom comes from, the Word of God. And it'll teach you the way you should go. And that's where drunkenness was revealed to me to be, you know, if not a sin, something that could possibly keep you out of the Kingdom of God. If you're tied up with a lifestyle of drinking and drunkenness, you're not focusing on the Lord. You probably don't have a relationship with the Lord, and thus you you have no part in His kingdom. Those drunken verses scared me even after I was born again, but it directed me to repent and turn from my drunken ways, which I never thought I could get free of. But because of my walk with the Lord, He gave me the strength and wisdom and guidance to bring me out of those dark days and to see that it was a lie. You can't just party all the time. It gets you into a lot of trouble. So if that's you, I recommend Christian Recovery and a very close relationship with the Lord and prayer and Bible study every day to live a discipled life. And if you don't know how to do that, we provide our discipleship classes, Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ, that are all based on the Word of God and the Teachings of Dr. Neil Anderson. They're available on our podcast and our YouTube channel, and we encourage you to check those out. And if you need to take a deeper dive, we can even send you the Word documents we passed out when we taught that class to you via— for free via email if you reach out and ask for them at mtforchrist247@gmail.com. Well, um, I do have to work today and I have to run out the door, so let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, thank you so much for revealing me— to me, you know, just how far you've taken me in my journey today as I remembered my fun but dark days of college, uh, partying, and, uh, how you— how you led me out of the fear and darkness of those uncertain times to know peace that doesn't go away in your presence and in your kingdom. Lord, we pray for anyone who is listening today or reading today's message, that You come alongside them in their walk and to bless them and bless them in their prayer request. Because, Lord, we all need Your help to do this, and we have to believe it is possible, and then we have to decide to follow to realize it. So help us today to do that in whatever way You see fit. Lord, we need Your help, so go before us today, open our eyes to the things You want us to see, and lead our steps in the things You would have us do. All we want to do is represent you and your kingdom and to help our friends and loved ones to see the truth too, um, and that the darkness of these— the world's ways aren't the way, way to peace and meaning, um, and that our lives really do matter. That's why you came to save us. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, and we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.