Crazy Joy

The strangest thing has happened in my 3rd block class.

We have been destroyed by waves of joy.

These waves usually hit at the beginning of the class period and leave us in hunched-over laughter. 

Friday, it happened again. It was beautiful. There is a freedom to play and be real and laugh that I have never quite experienced before. Did I mention I get to experience this with my my high-achieving students?

Smart cookies. Real smart cookies.

The kind that believe in Jesus' philosophy of leaving the 99 to go after the 1...the 1 point they missed from making 100 ...

And what are we doing? 

Laughing until we are crying.

After this, they do more work for me than any of my other classes combined. 

The lesson: Basking in His Presence of Joy produces amazing things.

Instead of the following: Saying you are standing in His Joy and striving to do amazing things.

Much of our church culture is flipped completely upside down. We trick ourselves into believing that we are supposed to be working for joy when really God intended joy to work for us.

You want to know why you are tired? 

You want to know why you are miserable?

Because you are working for that joy instead of laying in it!!

Maybe you need to stop working so hard. Maybe you need to stop serving so much. Maybe you need to bask a little while at the feet of Jesus. 

There is always a greater choice-- and it is never serving Jesus's needs, it is receiving from Him what He longs to give us.

If you don't believe me-- go read the story about Martha and Mary. Jesus was just as serious then as He is right now.

How do you foster an atmosphere for crazy joy? Invite Holy Spirit in and let Him surprise you. It's not going to happen if you are working really hard for it. It's going to happen when you walk right into it.

Praying for God to wreck your classrooms, homes, and workplaces with crazy JOY!!!!

Let go of control and put Him in control. Walk in peace and joy will follow you.


** In fact, please excuse any grammatical errors in this post... I'm so drunk on Joy right now that it's a little hard for me to write this for laughing.

Here is some inspiration: Tip of My Toes

100 before January 01

When it comes to exercise, it is important to turn off your brain.

I am sitting under the covers, on my bed, thinking about how I need to go run this morning to reach my goal of 100 miles.

The more I think about it, the longer it takes me to get out of bed and go.

In fact, writing this blog post is postponing my trip another three minutes. But I wanted to get this lesson down.

Another lesson I'm learning is that you don't have to use your brainpower in overdrive all the time. The brain needs a break. Stop thinking so much. 

Goal: 100 miles (biking, running, walking) by January 1, 2016.