The Joy Stories of Our Lives 28 Day Joy Challenge – Day 4 – Purity 1060

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 yours truly, fully laden with backpack and clipped-on accessories, hiking between the tire ruts of Old Town Road, or Shank Road, into the forest green beyond, comes to us from Tammy Lynn Clark, who captured this scene on May 29th, during our commute to our weekend accommodation at Nemurod Cabern in the Merck Forest and Farmland Center in Rupert, Vermont. Well, it's Monday and my Memorial Day vacation is officially over as I go back to life, back to reality, and as much as I will reflect on the joy that I had in taking some time off from work this past week, I have to admit that I have a significant amount of joy anticipating the return to normal that accompanies going back to work and returning to the routine that defines most of the weeks of the year and frames most of the days of my life thus far. I have been working for my employer 26 years, and even though my career is a story of regular changes and transitions, I know how blessed I am I am to have had a steady job and an income that has provided for my needs and bankrolled quite a number of fulfilled goals and dreams. I know that my job has provided me and my, and my family with what we needed to live. And even though there has been changes in what my family looks like since the time I started at my company, the job surprisingly has been something I could count on. So you wouldn't catch me— you won't catch me griping about work, at least not for very long anyway, because it continues to provide for me. And, and in many ways, it was only because of my decision to work there that I was able to survive and come to the place I am today. No single aspect of our lives defines us completely, and as much as I encourage people to focus on their faith and their relationship with the Lord, much of our mission in God's kingdom will be spent making our ends meet at our 9-to-5 jobs. And if we can't practice gratitude and appreciation for our work lives, much of our lives will be a practice of dissatisfaction, frustration, and anger over having our quote-unquote having to work at a place like this. Oh yeah, in the last week I know of two people's lives who are being negatively affected by a lack work. One suddenly dismissed, another one who, who is on the verge of financial collapse because of a history of foolishness, stubbornness, and rebellion. Their dire straits make me imagine that whatever complaints they may have had about previous employers suddenly don't seem so important as they enter into the future not knowing how they will pay their bills. On the other hand, even though we may receive financial compensation, if we are working in a hostile environment of a soul-sucking siege, uh, like I used to describe my office job, one of, one of two things need to change. Wisdom would dictate that we either make a plan to get out and find another place to work, or we need to do the hard work of changing our attitude, uh, instead of living an unhappy life, we need to honestly look at our situations and decide to flip the script. One way or another, if we want a life of peace and contentment, we need to change the story. And that brings us to our current series where I am walking through the 28-Day Joy Challenge because we are encouraging ourselves and others— you— to change the story of our lives by increasing our capacity for joy and by building our emotional resilience through simple practices of quieting, appreciation, and storytelling. The 28-Day Joy Challenge is based on Dr. Marcus Warner and Chris Coursey'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 Coursey on the topic of joy by going to fourhabits.org, and the link for that's on the blog. So, uh, let's jump into day 4, which will direct us to tell, uh, joy story from our lives. And, uh, so the Day 4, you know, Joy Challenge is the following. Day 4: Joy Stories. Welcome to Day 4 of the 28 Days to Joy Challenge. Today's encouragement: Joy is being glad to be together, and we are so glad to be on this journey with you. By reading this email and turning your mind toward joy, you are bringing more joy into the world around you. This affects not just your life, but everyone you come in contact with. Today's practice: Exercise 4. We are going to practice remembering joy in a situation from the past. How this exercise will benefit you: We sometimes call appreciation packaged joy. Remembering a time in the past that was enjoyable and savoring how it felt, sounded, smelled, looked, etc., trains us to feel joy in the present and expect joy in the future. Exercise steps: Remember a story about a favorite trip you took or a time spent at a favorite spot like a lake, a house, or a dorm room. Share your story and thoughts with a friend. Have fun with this exercise. We pick up tomorrow with more joy practice. This morning I sat down to do this challenge and decided to tell us— tell the story of my recent weekend away at the Nemurod cabin with my wife. I've already shared a little bit about my packing backpacking weekend already, so maybe I'm cheating a bit here, but I wanted to tell it all the same because of the enduring peace and joy that I found I had in that experience. But obviously this, this, this, this exercise, if you're doing this, can be from any anything in your life, and maybe something from your distant past. But for me, I don't know, I sort of keep things, keep things new. So, um, my story is I rather spontaneously booked, uh, the trip to spend 2 nights in a cabin located in the woods near Mount Anton, in the Mount Anton area of Rupert, Vermont, having never backpacked before. So my wife Tammy and Tami Lynn and I entered into the weekend with a mix of excitement and mild anxiety over this uncertainty of what it would be like. However, even though you can't control the things that you don't know about, in case, uh, and in this case, what the hiking would be like, um, the weather, the lay of the land, or the things we would find at our final destination. You know, those were all uncertain. Yes, they were all uncertain. We did— while we didn't have control over those things, we did have control over the things we decided to bring with us, and perhaps more importantly, the attitude that we took with us. And right from the beginning, perhaps because we didn't know what we would encounter in the woods, We both turned to one another to support and encourage ourselves that we could do this and to make sure that our lines of communications would be clear and that we ourselves would not be a problem that we would have to overcome. From the beginning, Tammy Lynn and I assured one another that we were in this together, that we would help each other to accomplish what we hoped we would be a peaceful and enjoyable weekend away. We were fully laden on our hike to the cabin, and it was physically taxing right from the start. So before we got too far into the hike, I turned to Tammy Lynn, uh, to assure that my thoughts for her were good, and that even though our individual paces may keep us separated, uh, from time to time along the trail, I was not separated from her in my mind and was not thinking any negative thoughts toward her in regards to her pace or anything else. And was only focusing on taking one step at a time, um, at a time, let's see, one step at a time, slowly but slow but steady, uh, to get to the cabin. I assured her that my thoughts for her were positive, and if I seemed distant in any way, it was only because I was focusing on the journey before us. She confessed that she was glad to hear it because the inner dialogue of her thoughts had been concerned about keeping up or that he has to wait for me. So I told her to silence those thoughts because I in no way was thinking anything along those lines. So we trudged on through and we made it to the cabin, which was only a few miles into the forest, but I felt a great relief to the point of physical shock at taking off that backpack. Like giving birth. After our arrival, we just enjoyed the quiet of the woods and the peace and joy of one another's company. That first day, we rested for a time in the dark, cozy confines of the loft of our weekend home before heading out for an afternoon hike to see some of the surrounding trails and woods, and spent the evening in front of a roaring fire outside. On day 2, we enjoyed streaming church and planned an expedition to Mount Anton and other trails and campsites for the day before returning to spend the afternoon and evening reading and resting at our weekend home in the woods. I am not a born-again outdoorsman by any means, but really enjoyed our weekend in the woods. The quiet, the wonder of hiking through the trails, the fire, the The sun, the air, and the peace of it all in the company of my wife makes me want to encourage all of you to make plans to get away from it all by going somewhere this summer, but with a reminder that the most important thing you can pack for your trip is an attitude of gratitude, peace, and wonder, where your intentions are simple and for the good of those you travel with. That's— my joy story, and I'm sticking to it. And, you know, to be real, you know, joy stories, they usually want you to push out those physical aspects, you know, the smell of the, you know, the smells and the feels and all that stuff. I still have to work on that, my joy storytelling. You know, I'm not much of a descriptor at times, you know. Oh, and, you know, I felt this in my body and all that. But, you know, those are the things that are usually highlighted in a joy story, you know, based on my training with Deeper Walk International. You know, you think of the physical aspects because when you think of those physical aspects, it sort of brings you right into the experience of what you had. You know, you really remember, you don't just remember sort of in your head, you sort of can see it, can sort of feel it, and really remember and bring yourself into experience of what you felt joy in, and that can give you joy now and, you know, encourage you to maybe do something like that in the future to give you joy and keep you in a joy state, I guess. So that's my added commentary that you won't find on the blog, so you're not going to hear it because I'm not going back to write it. I ain't got the time. Anyway, um, today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible, Promised A Book for Men. Um, um, and today's Bible verse is, um, Psalm 20:7. And the word of God says, some nations boast of their chariots and horses, but we boast in the name of the Lord our God. Today's verse encourages us to focus on what really matters and to boast in the name of the Lord our God. Jesus! I suppose today we would boast about our nation's military, uh, might, or individually our cool cars or other possessions of status, that we would boast about things we own or, or, or are associated with that are powerful. But the Christian should rightly recognize that our power and prestige pales in, in comparison of the power and glory of the Lord. Um, instead of lifting ourselves up because of the things we possess, we lift up the Lord, um, because he is the most powerful and everything really belongs to him, as he is the creator, sustainer, and finisher of all things. He makes them, he breaks them, and he chooses what will last. So we boast in the Lord because we know Uh, we know that we are weak, but when we put our faith in Jesus and align ourselves with God's will and ways, we are more than conquerors because of his strength, guidance, and love. As always, I invite all to go to mtforchrist.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 The Holy Spirit by A.W. Pink's book on the Holy Spirit, but we're sharing from chapter 7, which is, which is on the topic of the Holy Spirit and Christ. And today's section will be on the Spirit in the Incarnation and Baptism of Christ. So where was, where was the Holy Spirit in the Incarnation and during the baptism? Well, If you remember scripture, he was there. But if you don't, don't worry, A.W. Pink sort of breaks it down for all of us. Uh, if— and so if you want to see that, you can go to mtforchrist.org and you'll see that resource at the end of today's blog post. Also at the end of today's blog post, you'll see a bunch of encouragements, one of which says to join our Victory Over the Darkness: The Bondage Breaker or Freedom in Christ series of discipleship classes via the M.t. for Christ 247 podcast. And you can find that playlist of those classes on our YouTube channel, the same name, MT4Christ247. And if you wanted to take a deeper dive instead of just listening to the teachings, they are just audio, you could contact me at mt4christ247@gmail.com and I would send you the Word documents of the things I the class handouts that I gave out when I taught those classes at my local church back in 2021. Um, I encourage people to take those classes because it teaches about who we are in Christ. It teaches about the spiritual forces of darkness, and most importantly, it teaches us how to experience our freedom in Christ by overcoming our personal and spiritual conflicts through a process of repentance known as the Steps to Freedom in Christ. And so if you go through those courses, that'll sort of lead you to do the steps to freedom in Christ and to prayerfully, you know, experience your freedom in Christ where you would boast in the name of the Lord instead of anything you would ever do, rightfully so. We also encourage people to check out our Bible study as we do a topical Bible study each week. For, um, well, with Arthur and Susanna Sincotti. Um, and so if you wanted to check that out, we just did a, a new study on, um, that the fact that many are called, um, drawing from Matthew's, Matthew's Gospel, uh, the parable of the servants in the field and how everyone got paid a different amount. And, you know, and how it concludes with the verse where it says, "Many are called but few are chosen." And so we sort of discussed divine calling. We did that yesterday. So if you want to check that out, that's now on the audio podcast and our YouTube channel with the video. So we invite you to check that out. Like I said, I also encourage, you know, I'm going through the 28-day Joy Challenge. We encourage you to do that for yourselves. Uh, personally instead of just listening to me, um, and tell your own joy story of something good in the past. You know, we're trying to foster joy. Um, now joy is the fruit of the Spirit, as I like to say. So we're only doing this, this, uh, the study Monday through Saturday as we find our joy, um, in the Lord on Sunday. So even though I started the 28 Day Joy Challenge last week. I won't be finishing it until July 3rd according to my calendar because of that, that interruption. But you can do it all at once if you so choose. 28 full days to establish a habit of joy in your life where you quiet, where you appreciate, where you tell joy stories. You know, basically change your narrative, if you will. And the fourth aspect is, you know, changing those toxic thoughts. Instead of thinking toxically, we start to tell these Joy Stories to change the script from "I'm such a negative and sarcastic person" to "I'm someone who sees good," because it's there. We're not Pollyanna. It's true. It's just a matter of a perspective shift. And it changes everything. It changes the way you think, and it changes, you know, that you'll see good things coming instead of waiting for the next shoe to drop. So we encourage that because it helps your emotional resilience, and so that helps with trials as we come. You know, we have a greater capacity to deal with bad things when we live in a state of joy. And it's not based on circumstances. I'm not booking more trips to Nemurod Cabin because that's my happy space. Um, there might be some in the future, but I'm not looking forward to it, you know. I'm not— I have no concrete plans. Tell my wife, Tammy Lynn, I have no concrete plans to camp at Nemurod Cabin anytime soon. So we'll see. But I have to admit, it was It was different. It was a good peaceful trip. So maybe we'll go someplace else, do something else. Yeah, that's all I'll say about that. No promises. We'll go it, we'll take the days and weeks and things as they come. And we're in the month of June, so hey man, if you didn't notice, half the year is basically gone. We're in the 6th month, guys. So I don't know. I don't know what that means, but it means we made it through the winter and made it through most of spring. Summer is ahead of us, and you know, before you blink, more things will change. So rejoice in the moment, some things that are happening. People are going to prom and graduating from high school and college, and you know, in the meantime, people are getting in accidents and losing their jobs and all kinds of things. So in all of that, we can try to focus on the good, um, and, uh, be people of peace and joy, because people need to see that in the world and need to be encouraged. And that's why we do what we do here at the podcast. So let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much for the joy you set before us, that you would die for us and, uh, pay for our sins and welcome us into the kingdom of God. Lord, we just, uh, we just ask for you to help us. We pray for anyone who's listening or reading this message, that you would come alongside them in their prayer request and their walk of faith. And Lord, as always, we ask for you to go before us today, open our eyes to the things you want us to see, and move our steps in the things you would have us do. Or— because we need you, um, and we all— we want to do is represent you in your kingdom because because we made a decision to follow you, and, um, you've blessed us every step of the way. And we just want to keep going to where you would have us go. So, Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.