DEVO May 8 - A More Accurate Way to Spell J.O.Y.

Devotion below … but first read the following Scripture!

 

 

 

 

Do you know what the most miserable day of the week is? Oddly, for me, it used to be Saturday.

 

Why? Because I’d “hard” all week. And by Saturday, I had a long list of all of the things that I wanted to do. (Half of which involved laying around and watching sports.)

 

Yet that meant that any interruption to my personal agenda was demoralizing – if not, infuriating. And there were always interruptions. There always will be. But even the “good” things became agonizing distractions from my personal agenda.

 

Now, if you read those first few paragraphs again, what would be the main words?

 

·         First, would be, “me, myself, and my personal agenda.”

·         Second would be “frustration, demoralization, depression, and anger.”

·         If you wrote that into a formula, it would read: “selfish = dissatisfaction.”

·         If you flip that formula, it produces a path to joy: “Selflessness = Life!”

 

But it’s more than that. Hopefully you’ve learned by now the formula for J.O.Y. – Jesus, Others, You, and in that order of priority.

 

But I’d simplify it even further. Scripture teaches that there are only two real focuses in life – J or Y, Jesus or you (indeed, God or you … or “Upward and toward” or “downward and inward”).

 

It’s like the famous C.S. Lewis’ quote – “Focus on Heaven and you’ll get earth thrown in. Focus on earth and you’ll get neither.”

 

·         If we focus on “J for Jesus,” life will throw-in healthy relationships (with “O for Others”) and right priorities (which will make sense of “Y, Yourself”).

·         But if you focus on “Y for Yourself,” you’ll get neither a joyful self nor a life-giving relationship with God.

·         And if you focus on “Y for Yourself,” you won’t even really and with satisfaction get “O for Others.” Why? Because people are sinful. They’ll inevitably and eventually let you down. That’s why “O for Others” is not a viable third alternative for our focus, leaving us, really and ultimately, with just J or Y.

 

Look further above. I want to refine my conclusion.

 

·         I said earlier, essentially, “What is the formula for satisfaction? The path to joy is: “Selflessness = Life!”

·         Here’s my refined conclusion: “Godliness = Life = Joy.” (For godliness, indeed, is a single-minded focus on God, which allows everything else to be thrown in.)

 

In Christ’s Love,

a guy who’s prejudice –

I focus on the letter J

to the exclusion of all other letters