Rejoice When It Makes No Sense

I have been doing the study, Fight Back With Joy for a few weeks now. The lesson on day one, session four is just what I titled this post with.

The question asked was: How do you rejoice when it doesn't make any sense? The Answer:
One square inch at a time!

Joey and Rory, you may have heard of them. Joey is dying from cancer. Yet she fought with joy. They have a daughter named Indiana. The pictures they share are the sweetest. Indiana is now two. Joey recently entered "final sleep" where she is still alive here but won't wake up till her first breath in Heaven.

Their story is heartbreaking but they are also showing that every single square inch provides an opportunity to bring God glory.

There are days in this journey we are leaping and bounding in joy and excitement. Other days, we feel we are lucky to progress a millimeter ahead.... Joy though isn't happiness like most think it is. Even I had to learn that. Often days can feel like this ____---|_--_-___|____-_____----|----. Constant ups and downs with brick walls.

Even in my journey with my kids, I get paralyzed by fear, worry and anxiety.... "What will the next MRI show? Why these results on the sleep study? What are we going to do about it? They better do things the right way or else! What if the migraines don't get better? What if they are something more sinister that requires surgery again? Is it really a tummy bug or is there pressure on the brain again? What will neuropsych say this time? How will the next IEP meeting go? Will they do the modifications needed?" On and on and on we can go......


So what is joy?
"Joy is the settled assurance that God is in control of all the details of my life, the quiet confidence that ultimately everything is going to be all right, and the determined choice to praise God in all things." ~ Kay Warren ~
We are not called to rejoice everything, we are called to rejoice IN all things. We become what we proclaim. YOU have to proclaim that the darkness, the storm, the desert will NOT win! Even on the worst of days, God is still in control. So hard to remember sometimes but He is.

Pray for springs in the desert. I have lacked badly in keeping up with reading it but I do have Streams in the Desert. Such good devotionals in there...

How do you do that?

I love how Margret put it in day two. "God will use this diagnosis to refine me, but I refuse to allow this disease to define me!" She's a breast cancer survivor. There was a day she described how she was really struggling. "I sensed the Holy Spirit whisper, 'Margaret, you can choose to hold onto the adversity you're facing or you can choose to hold onto God.' Only one was going to carry me through."

She also shares how that day she was writing that lesson how she looked at the calendar and cringed. We do that don't we? We dread the appointments ahead or worse, fear them.... (GUILTY!!!) She realized she was feeling like the victim. She decided than instead of giving into feeling powerless, she prayed. Instead of dread, she focused on what divine expectation was to come.
Some days remembering this focus is like climbing a 80 degree incline....

God's provision is better than any problem. Instead of being paralyzed, get up and walk. Crisis, hardship and loss can become opportunities for growth if we respond well.

I am so guilty of not doing just that too often..... I needed this post more for myself honestly....


Margaret's last words in day two was:
"My prayer is that you will continue to fight back with joy and refuse to give in to helplessness or powerlessness. Remember, our God is mighty to save and longs to heal you. He is with you and for you - even in this. (Whatever your storm is) What has happened to you does not have to define you. Instead it can refine you to become more like Jesus."

We are VICTORS not VICTIMS!

When we walk together but alone, it can impact how we view things too. Such a struggle some days to not feel alone..... I mean totally alone.... When we feel like that, that's when the worst thoughts about ourselves and or our lives invade. I mean a full on invasion! We have to fight that! We have to know where those lies are coming from..... So not easy sometimes to pick ourselves up though is it? We know we really aren't alone in our journey but getting our hearts and minds to be on the same page seems almost impossible sometimes.

I have heard it said that the farthest distance to ever travel is the 18 inches from your head to your heart and vice versa.

We were asked last night in class what were some of the untruths we have heard from others.
I encourage you to at least think about those if not share them in the comments here. Share the untruth and then share the truth. Blot out that darkness with light! One I was told was, "You should have never had your son because you will always have defective children."

I'm sorry but I don't see them defective. I see them as conquers. AND SO ARE YOU! 


Our enemy doesn't just plant seeds of untruth into our hearts, he does it in the coldest, cruelest ways possible.


What we need to do is fight back with joy and remember the TRUTH. We are all God's creation. God doesn't make junk, even if the world doesn't see it.

Margaret further talks about the Velveteen Rabbit.
How often do we feel like we are tossed aside, alone, ignored? I feel that often, sadly....

http://redefineyourreality.com/blog/velveteen-rabbit/

“Real isn’t how you are made…” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”

“Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.

“Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.”

“Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,” he asked, “or bit by bit?”

“It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in your joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand…”

May I remember this the next time I need picked up.... May all of us. May we remember this about our special gems and ourselves.... The world may not see us in this light but God does. That's really all that matters.....

May my focus not be on dreading the next appointment or phone call.... May my focus be on not missing the little joy bombs that are around me. The smiles on my children's faces, The giggles, the story telling, the drawings.... May I focus on that. May I focus on what God wants me to focus on.... Not the fear, worry and anxiety that seems to always want to loom over my head....

Psalm 139:14-16

I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Wonderful are Your works,
And my soul knows it very well.

My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth;

Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;
And in Your book were all written
The days that were ordained for me,
When as yet there was not one of them.
Our Lord will have the ultimate victory. We will not be here forever. Heaven we will be forevermore. Amen?


How many can we lead to victory in the meantime? Our journey is ours to embrace and triumph. Not to say we don't have the bad days. Oh my we do...... I pray we all keep going forward though no matter what we are having to walk into....... 

We shall overcome!

"Every high thing must come down. Every stronghold shall be broken. You wear the Victor's Crown! You will overcome, you will overcome!"

AMEN!
~ Special Momma ~