Trials, Daddy Issues, and Taking a Peace Break 28 Day Joy Challenge – Day 10 – Purity 1066

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 the setting sun beneath a mammoth cloud formation seen through my less-than-spotless windshield comes to us from yours truly, as I just had to capture this beauty at the end of the day Saturday as I was racing west on I-90. The wildfires of Canada's effects on our air quality and the subsequent rainstorms prevented us from enjoying the beauty of the sun over the past week. Um, so when I saw that big yellow orb in the sky Saturday afternoon, I was filled with joy and had to act quick to catch it before I exited on I-87 and my northerly direction took it out of view. Well, it's Monday, and even though we will be on the road again to make that morning commute to work, I am content because even though things aren't perfect in all the areas of my my life. I was reminded yesterday that there can be a variety of reasons why we can find ourselves in the valley of the shadow of death or trials, and not all of them are my fault. Uh, yesterday my local church was blessed by an awesome message by Pastor Roscoe Lilly that reminded us that there are 3 possibilities for why we experience trials in life. I'm sharing a link on the blog today because I thought Barosco's message was that good. And while I don't have to— I don't want to spoil it for those who are curious, the 3 reasons why we find ourselves in the valley is because, in my own words, 1, trials are part of life. Trials are a consequence of living in a world broken by sin, where things fall apart, age, or change, and everyone dies. Trials are natural. And number 2, Trials are a consequence of the choices we make. Bad choices lead to bad consequences. When we don't agree with and follow God's word, we reap the harvest from the bad seed we have sown. Sometimes we bring the trials to ourselves. And 3, trials are used by God to test our faith and to prepare us for his purposes. Sometimes God brings us— brings a trial into our lives to to make us grow and mature into the people he wants us to be. And of course, even though those three points cover the separate reasons that could lie behind trials, if you experienced some, you know that sometimes our trials can rightly be seen as a perfect storm of all three, as there is never an instance that we don't live in a world broken by sin, that we are free from the consequences of our actions, good or bad, and where God isn't moving all things for his purposes. But it is good how Pastor Roscoe explained it all individually, because sometimes we need to understand that our walk through life isn't all because of one thing or over another. I especially like the emphasis rightly placed on the first point, that trials and suffering is a normal part of life. Because even though I am relatively happy this morning, I have to understand that my trials for the day— while my trials for the day are manageable, there will be a time when they will be more intense. It's Father's Day this coming Sunday, and I was reminded last week that the presence of our fathers in our lives doesn't last forever. As a dear friend of my family went into eternity, this man's family will spend the first Father's Day over the last 50 years without him in their lives. My parents are aging. While I plan on visiting my dad this weekend, I, I don't know how many more Father's Days my brothers and I will have to let him know that we love and appreciate him. So I'm giving everyone a heads up about the next Hallmark holiday, but was reminded of how they won't last forever. So there are unresolved daddy issues out there. I recommend forgiveness as a pathway to peace. I also recommend that we don't just focus on our trials as we walk through this world, because even in the midst of some very challenging trials or times of suffering, peace and joy are available for those who know how to find them. And that brings us to our current series where I am walking through the 28-Day Joy Challenge, um, because we are encouraging ourselves and others— you— to find peace in our lives by increasing 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's and Chris Courcy's latest book, The Four Habits of Joy-Filled People, and you can find— you can sign up and take it for free and purchase a variety of books from Warner and Courcy on the topic of joy by going to fourhabits.org. The link is on the blog. So let's jump into Day 10, which will direct us to practice finding a moment's peace right here and right now. It's time to take a peace break. And the, and the 28-Day Joy Challenge says, Day 10: Peace Break. Welcome to Day 10 of the 28 Days to Joy Challenge. Today's encouragement: the busier we are, the harder it can feel to slow down and rest. It is important to remember that giving yourself permission to rest during your day is not a waste of time. You are developing healthy rhythms that will benefit your mind and body for the rest of your life. Today's practice: Exercise 10. Today we will practice resting and breathing. How this exercise will benefit you: Taking time to quiet and calm ourselves not only benefits our body and emotional state and also sets us up to be more productive and creative when we get back to work. I'm still deep breathing when needed and feeling the benefits in my body, says Julie. Um, exercise steps: we rest to recharge our nervous system so we can practice more joy. Find a comfortable, quiet spot, then try to be still and quiet for 3 minutes. Focus on your breathing while you inhale deeply. Expand your stomach with each breath. Notice how this calming practice feels. Have fun with this exercise. We pick up tomorrow with more joy practice. That's from our friends at 4habits.org. As a former regular practitioner of calm abiding meditation, I thought that today's joy challenge of just sitting quietly and focusing on my breath for 3 minutes would be a cinch. In the past, I would meditate on the breath for much longer duration— durations than 3 minutes. But this morning, I was reminded that the practice of meditating on the breath is seldom done perfectly, as it takes effort to stop the mental chatter of your thoughts, and that even after entering into a state of peaceful relaxation, we have to pay attention to keep the thoughts at bay and to enjoy the silence. For those of you who are new to quieting and focusing on your breath, you may be wondering where the silence is or if silence is even possible. Because if you are not in the practice of quieting, quiet, peace, and stillness may be foreign concepts to you, as you may believe that you can't control your thoughts or that you are always thinking about something. And believe me, I get it. When I started practicing meditation, I feared for my sanity a little bit because of the racing discursive thoughts that seemed to never want to go away, or how my mind would wander and would be drawn to imagine or speculate on something other than the present moment and my breath. But I discovered that with practice and effort, I could not only enjoy brief moments of peace, I was able to increase my capacity for it and progressively increase the amount of time I could quiet myself and enjoy the peace of a quiet mind. This morning, even though I have the capacity for long periods of quiet—or at least I think I still have the capacity for it—shortly after I started today's joy exercise, my mind began to wander. What I started to think about, I don't recall because I quickly realized that I had gone off track and reminded myself to just focus on the breath, in and out, in and out. My wandering mind wanted to go elsewhere more than once, but when I caught myself thinking, I immediately stopped that train of thought and went back to the breath. After a couple of interruptions, I, who generally practice quieting meditations with eyes closed, decided to check my timer to see where I was. The timer read 3 minutes and 49 seconds, so I had made it. But because I didn't "do it perfectly" and because I decided I could use another peace break, decided to try again for another 3 minutes. The second attempt was better but not perfect, as most meditation sessions aren't. They are generally a continuous reminder to stay on the breath, but the distractions do decrease with practice. After the two sessions, I recognized that my body and mind were much more peaceful than when I sat down, and I then proceeded with my regular practice of gratitude, giving thanks for the good, the various good things in my life, and by praying for the Lord to go before me today and for the needs of my friends and family. Today's Joy Challenge reminded me of the importance of quieting and, and of practice. Quieting gives us peace, and the ability to quiet oneself is a key to experience joy, maintain good mental health, and increases our emotional resilience. But we have to actually sit down and practice it from time to time— regularly— to realize these benefits. Just knowing that something is good for you is not enough. We actually have to do them to benefit from them. We have to practice quieting, prayer, Bible study, and doing good works to experience their effects. So even though it is Monday, I encourage you to start or continue the habit of quieting by taking a peace break. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is Proverbs 19:21, and the Word of God says, "You can make many plans, but the Lord's purposes will prevail." Today's verse reminds us that although we can plan all kinds of things, God's purposes will prevail. In other words, God is in control, and if he doesn't allow or ordain what we want to do, it simply won't come to pass. Now, from our perspective, it appears that we have completely free will and we can do whatever we choose whenever we want, and nothing can stop us from doing it. But riddle me this, Batman, uh, why do some of the things we plan for never come to pass? There are endless examples of this in life, but the one I like to point out is when my company informed me that I would be doing an out-of-town tour in the winter/early spring months out in Buffalo, New York. That even though I didn't want to go, I was being forced, and they could, and they could do that. And having been sent out of town on more than one occasion in the past, I accepted my fate. However, that winter tour was scheduled to happen in the year of our Lord 2020, and a little thing called the COVID-19 pandemic changed the best-laid plans of mice and men. The out-of-town assignment was canceled, and I haven't been sent out of town ever since. So make plans if you want, but God is in charge. So try to align yourself to his will the best you can, and and accept what happens as a way to his purposes. As always, I invite all to go to 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, and today's sections on the— are on the purpose, the meaning, the meaning of the advent of the Spirit. So if you want to read, you know, what does it mean that the Holy Spirit has come, go to mt4christ.org and you'll see that resource at the end of today's blog post. Well, I've stretched my time thin, so I'm going to pray a quick prayer, hopefully before my alarm to send me out of here goes off. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much for all that you do for us. Lord, we pray for the people listening today, that they would take time to quiet and appreciate the things they have in this life, because if they're not in a trial now, there will be a trial someday. But when you're in charge, we can take, take, you know, take peace in that, knowing that your purposes will be done. Lord, uh, as always, we pray for you to go before us today, and we pray for the people listening, that you would bless them and their prayer requests and their walk of faith. Please, for all of us, go before us Show us the things you want us to see and the things you want us to do, uh, today to represent you in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, and we love you. And we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.