Jump Start # 359

Philippians 4:4 “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice!”

  Rejoice! What a wonderful sound that is. It is more than being happy. Happiness is based upon what “happens.” It is determined and maintained by circumstances. Rejoicing is a choice that a person makes. Paul, in prison, could tell the Philippians that they needed to rejoice in the Lord.

  A person can’t control what happens to them, but they can determine how it will affect them. Misery is optional. You wouldn’t think so the way some behave. Because your circumstances are miserable on the outside, does not mean that you have to be miserable on the inside. Some of our misery comes from misunderstanding of God and Scriptures. Some have concluded that God ought to be so happy to have us that He’d never let a cloudy day come in our life. We need to get over ourselves and realize that first, God never said anything like that and secondly, we ought to be blessed that God even offers us a second chance.

  Yes, there will be trials, troubles and trips to the hospital. There will be bad days, stormy nights and a bunch of “that’s not fair” in between. Take a look at our heroes in the Bible. They had mountains to climb, giants to face and incredible things against them. What kept them going was faith in God.

  Paul’s words to the Philippians are not, “be happy,” but rather, ‘rejoice in the Lord.” It’s the “in the Lord” part that makes all the difference. It’s in the Lord that we have hope. It’s in the Lord that we find salvation. It’s in the Lord that our strength comes. What gets us through the tough times is “in the Lord.” The emphasis is not in the rejoicing, but “in the Lord.” The more “in the Lord” you have, the more you have to be thankful for and more to rejoice in. We make it or we don’t make it based upon our attitude and choosing. There are some Christians who seem to always be miserable. Everything is bad. The day begins with gloom and doom and it goes down hill from there. Why? Tough life? No. They have chosen misery instead of rejoicing. They choose misery because they can’t see the Lord and they can’t get past themselves. Rejoice is a choice and what a wonderful choice it is.

  Let me share with you a wonderful experience I had recently. I was visiting someone in the hospital, in a cancer unit. It happened to be on a holiday. The parking lot was nearly empty. The staff working was small. There weren’t many visitors on the floor. It was pretty quiet. The room across from us was empty. A male custodian was cleaning it. He was in there a long time. He started to sing. He wasn’t very good. The people with me all noticed. We tried to figure out what song it was. He was singing louder and louder, sometimes, whistling. His singing got better. He was a happy guy. It made us all smile and some in our room sang along with him. I don’t think he ever heard, he was in his own world. But look at this picture. He had to work a holiday. He was cleaning toilets in a cancer ward of a hospital. His job is low on the rung of the ladder. And there he was just singing his heart away. I wonder how many of us would have done that? I wonder if I would have done that. Complain. Yeah, we’re good at that. Why do I have to work holidays…they better be paying me time and a half…why do patients make such a mess in their rooms…why do I have to do this…or, just do your job with a song in your heart and on your lips. We never know who is listening, including the Lord. That unknown custodian made my day. He understood that you choose how things will affect you.

  This makes you wonder about how we go about our jobs, housework, yard work and life itself. Do others hear us singing, or are we always complaining?

  Rejoice, Paul says. What do you say?

Roger