faith unfaded

A prevailing theme I’ve noticed while working on a memoir is that I was always waiting for my circumstances to change so my happiness could begin.

When I get married…when I have kids…when the kids are older…when I have more money…when I move to a new town…when I get this promotion…

True joy is never attainable when it has qualifications to get there.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. Romans 15:13

The joy comes from an internal relationship with God, not external circumstances.

How much life did I lose waiting for conditions to be perfect before I could enjoy it?

Imagine you are going on vacation. You’ve taken a week off work and planned every detail. You are driving down the road and you hit a pothole. Then raindrops begin to fall. Do you stop wait for the highway crew to fill in the holes? Do you pull over and wait for the rain to stop? Do you spend the first half of your week sitting at a rest area waiting for everything to be perfect before continuing on?

No. You turn on your wipers, you maneuver around potholes, you overcome every obstacle keeping you from your vacation. You don’t waste your vacation because things aren’t perfect.

And yet we do that with our spiritual journeys all the time! I’ll serve God when…

…He fixes this problem.
…I get over what happened to me.
…I am not so stressed.
…they pay for what they did.

Whether you have one item on your list or 100, you are in blatant sin when you start giving God conditions.

And you are robbing yourself of life.

What are you waiting for?

I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. Philippians 4:11

Stop waiting for perfect conditions in order to enjoy your life. If you aren’t happy, look inward. True joy comes from the Lord.

Circumstances change; Christ does not.