So Then Why Are We So Joy-less?
Unplugging from Jesus (John 15) can be so subtle. Usually there isn’t a moment that I have intentionally said, “Jesus, I’ll take this from here. I am unplugging from you now!” This isn’t how it happens for me. It is a slow leak, a slow drain. Even now, I’m on an airplane typing this out via battery power.
When we stay attached to our power source (the Vine: Jesus) we have all the fullness we were intended to have. We work the way we were made to work. Joy is fully available because our source is constantly sending all that we could ever need. So then why, are we so often joy-less?
I can go for little while without being plugged in, but that battery drains quickly. Friends, we are joy-less because we live Jesus-less days. I hear people say that “things, relationships and experiences” bring them joy. And in some ways, all good gifts are from God, thus these things carry the thumbprint of God’s joy in them. But what happens when these things go bad? What happens when the “joy” that we get from these things is hijacked by things not going the way we want them to? We need to be careful to not see these things, people, circumstances as joy’s fulfillment, but simply as gifts from God.
Once again, Joy is outside of our circumstances. Deeper than any wind or wave can temper. More powerful than the greatest evil imaginable. Joy is overflowing, only when we are connected to the source. Let’s practice: STAY CONNECTED today.