Boring. . . finding joy in the mundane

I stole the text below from my friend's blog, but think it is relevant and right on. Enjoy!

Well today I was in the midday doldrums in need of a spiritual zap. I was working on some tasks that are certainly important to keep things running smoothly, so that is good. But sitting in front of the computer can suck my brain out. The mundane is where we live most of our lives, and in this place we learn to love God, and serve people, even though we don’t always feel like it. This is called having character. Or most days, building character. For this I rejoice, because I love Jesus, and want to learn to love Him more. I want to learn character through the testing pressures of life, including functioning in joy during mundane tasks. I do though fail in this assignment regularly. The stir-crazy revivalist in me wants every moment to be a world changing, earth shaking, devil blasting, holy ghost hoedown. But not every moment of my life fits into that category. As Mike Bickle of the International House of Prayer puts it “We focus on establishing our identity in God as we are faithful to serve in the mundane.”

The Spiritual Practice of Justice

There was a great insert in my Sunday bulletin at Church that I wanted to share with you:

There can be little growth in holiness without growth in a sense of social justice.
-Edward Hays in "A Lenten Hobo Honeymoon"

We must be for the poor not simply a handout but a voice on their behalf where the poor are not heard and their pain is not registered. If we are to really minister, it is up to us to first be transformed ourselves so taht we can then be really transfiguring.
-Joan Chittister from "In the Heart of the Temple: My Spiritual Vision"

Develop a daily cue to remind yourself to practice justice

• Every time you take money out of your wallet, it can be your cue to "practice justice"
• Every time you start your care, it can be your cue to "practice justice"
• Every time you see someone in need, it can be your cue to "practice justice"

Pick your own cue and use that to keep your calling front and center.

Reflections

• Identify an injustice that troubles you. What first made you aware of it? Reflect on one action you have done or can do to combat it.
• Do you think that all people are born with a yearning for justice, or does it have to be taught? Think back to your childhood and recall your most vivid experience of justice or injustice. How can you participate in teaching justice to a younger generation

I really got a lot out of this bulletin insert and wanted to share it with you. There was also a great Psalm that someone quoted this week that I wanted to share in light of this social justice posting and the healthcare debate:

Happy are they who consider the poor and needy! The LORD will deliver them in the time of trouble. The LORD preserves them and keeps them alive, so that they may be happy in the land; he does not hand them over to the will of their enemies. The LORD sustains them on their sickbed and ministers to them in their illness.

God is calling us to take care of the poor and needy and promises to take care of us when we do. We are called to care and to be the hands and feet of God, ministering to the disenfranchised, the hungry, the weak and the sick. Let us not forget.

Amazing, Inspiring, Profound and Thought-Provoking speech. . . excerpts below

A child in Guatemala. She lives in poverty

without safe drinking water or other very basic things

but represents hope for the future. All of us need to

believe in a better future, no matter where we are

or where we come from.

My mother-in-law sent me the speech below. I have taken excerpts out of the speech to share with you. If you want to see the whole thing click here http://www.paulhawken.com/paulhawken_frameset.html
Then click on "Multimedia" and you will see the speech as a PDF.

This speech was given by Paul Hawken at the University of Portland graduation this May, 2009. Paul's short bio is: Paul Hawken is a renowned entrepreneur, visionary environmental activist, and author of many books, most recently Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming.

Here are some amazing excerpts from the speech:

Healing or Stealing?

The Commencement Address by Paul Hawken to the Class of 2009, University of Portland

May 3, 2009

When I was invited to give this speech, I was asked if I could give a simple short talk that was “direct, naked, taut, honest, passionate, lean, shivering, startling, and graceful.” No pressure there. Let’s begin with the startling part. Class of 2009: you are going to have to figure out what it means to be a human being on earth at a time when every living system is declining, and the rate of decline is accelerating. Kind of a mind-boggling situation... but not one peer-reviewed paper published in the last thirty years can refute that statement. Basically, civilization needs a new operating system, you are the programmers, and we need it within a few decades.

This planet came with a set of instructions, but we seem to have misplaced them. Important rules like don’t poison the water, soil, or air, don’t let the earth get overcrowded, and don’t touch the thermostat have been broken. . .

There is invisible writing on the back of the diploma you will receive, and in case you didn’t bring lemon juice to decode it, I can tell you what it says: You are Brilliant, and the Earth is Hiring. The earth couldn’t afford to send recruiters or limos to your school. It sent you rain, sunsets, ripe cherries, night blooming jasmine, and that unbelievably cute person you are dating. Take the hint. And here’s the deal: Forget that this task of planet-saving is not possible in the time required. Don’t be put off by people who know what is not possible. Do what needs to be done, and check to see if it was impossible only after you are done.

When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand the data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse. What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world. The poet Adrienne Rich wrote, “So much has been destroyed I have cast my lot with those who, age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world.” There could be no better description. Humanity is coalescing. It is reconstituting the world, and the action is taking place in schoolrooms, farms, jungles, villages, campuses, companies, refuge camps, deserts, fisheries, and slums.

You join a multitude of caring people. No one knows how many groups and organizations are working on the most salient issues of our day: climate change, poverty, deforestation, peace, water, hunger, conservation, human rights, and more. This is the largest movement the world has ever seen. Rather than control, it seeks connection. Rather than dominance, it strives to disperse concentrations of power. Like Mercy Corps, it works behind the scenes and gets the job done. Large as it is, no one knows the true size of this movement. It provides hope, support, and meaning to billions of people in the world. Its clout resides in idea, not in force. It is made up of teachers, children, peasants, businesspeople, rappers, organic farmers, nuns, artists, government workers, fisherfolk, engineers, students, incorrigible writers, weeping Muslims, concerned mothers, poets, doctors without borders, grieving Christians, street musicians, the President of the United States of America, and as the writer David James Duncan would say, the Creator, the One who loves us all in such a huge way. . .

Inspiration is not garnered from the litanies of what may befall us; it resides in humanity’s willingness to restore, redress, reform, rebuild, recover, reimagine, and reconsider. “One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice,” is Mary Oliver’s description of moving away from the profane toward a deep sense of connectedness to the living world.

Millions of people are working on behalf of strangers, even if the evening news is usually about the death of strangers. This kindness of strangers has religious, even mythic origins, and very specific eighteenth-century roots. Abolitionists were the first people to create a national and global movement to defend the rights of those they did not know. Until that time, no group had filed a grievance except on behalf of itself. The founders of this movement were largely unknown — Granville Clark, Thomas Clarkson, Josiah Wedgwood — and their goal was ridiculous on the face of it: at that time three out of four people in the world were enslaved. Enslaving each other was what human beings had done for ages. And the abolitionist movement was greeted with incredulity.

Conservative spokesmen ridiculed the abolitionists as liberals, progressives, do-gooders, meddlers, and activists. They were told they would ruin the economy and drive England into poverty. But for the first time in history a group of people organized themselves to help people they would never know, from whom they would never receive direct or indirect benefit. And today tens of millions of people do this every day. It is called the world of non-profits, civil society, schools, social entrepreneurship, non-governmental organizations, and companies who place social and environmental justice at the top of their strategic goals. The scope and scale of this effort is unparalleled in history. . .

This extraordinary time when we are globally aware of each other and the multiple dangers that threaten civilization has never happened, not in a thousand years, not in ten thousand years. . . We have done great things and we have gone way off course in terms of honoring creation. You are graduating to the most amazing, stupefying challenge ever bequested to any generation. The generations before you failed. They didn’t stay up all night. They got distracted and lost sight of the fact that life is a miracle every moment of your existence. Nature beckons you to be on her side. You couldn’t ask for a better boss. The most unrealistic person in the world is the cynic, not the dreamer. Hope only makes sense when it doesn’t make sense to be hopeful. This is your century. Take it and run as if your life depends on it.

One of the greatest influences on my life

Me and grandma sitting with her dog in the garden

My grandma died about two years ago, just two weeks shy of her 100th birthday.

I have been reflecting on major influences in my life, and she defintely makes the top 5 list.

Below is the eulogy I delivered at her funeral. I sure learned a lot from my grandma:

Grandma taught me so many things about life, but as I have been reflecting back over the past two weeks, there are four things that really come to mind.

First, Grandma taught me how to love. She did this by example, never overtly coming out and saying “this is how you treat people,” she just showed me how to treat people with unconditional love every day. I had the benefit of getting this from two generations of Picketts, because she taught my dad how to love too. So every day growing up I had shining examples of how to love unconditionally and how to treat people right, through my dad and through my Grandma.

When I was in the sixth grade, my mom would drop me off at Grandma’s house every morning on her way to school. I would spend an hour with Grandma before walking to school, and then usually I would walk back to her house at the end of the school day. I came to love these mornings in sixth grade. I would wake up at my house and have breakfast with my mom, dad and sister. Then I would get dropped off at Grandma’s house and she would have breakfast waiting for me. We would eat breakfast together and then play checkers or Chinese checkers or cards. Sometimes Grandma would help me with my homework. Each morning Grandma always greeted me with a smile and a warm meal. I probably didn’t thank her very often, I certainly did not thank her often enough. But she still showed me unconditional love every day, and through her example taught me what love looked like.

Another life lesson that Grandma taught me was to keep a positive outlook on life. She exemplified this in all that she would do. If it was raining, she would be excited about the rain. If it was sunny and warm, she saw that as a blessing. If it was cold and blustery, that was great too because it was an excuse to stay inside and eat soup. Grandma epitomizes the phrase “If life hands you lemons, make lemonade!” She always saw the silver lining in every cloud. The story my dad told about the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. is a great example of this.

The third life lesson that Grandma instilled in me was a strong work ethic. Keep in mind that Grandma was 70 when I was born, so for my formative years my Grandma was in her 80s. She had long since retired from running her health food store or working in a traditional job, but she still had a powerful work ethic that she shared with me. When Grandma lived in Black Canyon City, she had five or six citrus trees in her yard. Anytime that we visited her during fruit season, we would be out in the yard picking the fruit from the trees. We had had an endless supply of grapefruit, tangerines and oranges. Grandma moved to Flagstaff in 1989 when I was 11 years old, she was 81. Grandma’s house in Flagstaff had a lawn, so we wanted to get her a lawn mower. We shopped around for gas and electric mowers, but grandma insisted on a hand powered manual mower. This made a lasting impression on an 11 year old boy. She taught me how to use that mower, but more often than not she would cut her lawn in the summer before I could get down to her house. The same was true with shoveling the snow. If we had a big snowstorm overnight and I did not rush down to her house first thing in the morning, she would have already shoveled a path from her front door to her mailbox and also shoveled off the back patio for the dogs. She did this through her 80s and I watched and learned as a teenager. Once again I had the benefit of two generations of Picketts, because Grandma also instilled this work ethic in my dad, who shared it with me.

The final thing that I remember most about Grandma was her love and appreciation for God’s creatures and God’s creation. Grandma’s love of animals knew no bounds. She would put her dog’s wellbeing in front of anything else. She was the original “dog whisperer” as she had a keen ability to communicate with her animals. Grandma taught me how to treat animals with respect and kindness, and demonstrated to me the beauty and depth of a bond between humans and our furry companions. I grew up with a great dog named Zephyr, but she was my parent’s dog. After much pleading I got my own dog just before Grandma moved to Flagstaff. His name was Royal and it was Grandma that really showed me how to bond with him and treat him like family. We used to sit for hours and watch Royal and Grandma’s Dalmatian Lady play in the yard. When Grandma would read on the couch in the afternoons, she would always drape her hand down to the floor and Royal or Lady would always lie there Grandma would pet them for hours.

Grandma also had an amazing appreciation for nature. She was a gardener extraordinaire and had the greenest thumb of anyone I have ever met. She could make anything grow. We used to get grapefruit from Black Canyon City the size of small watermelons. I remember one time she even planted Kiwi seeds (because I asked her if it could be done) and before you knew it she had a kiwi plant. Grandma’s love for gardening and nature had a profound impact on me. I ended up doing yard care during high school as a summer job and tending the garden at my house.

When we bought our first house in Denver, there were two important criteria: We needed a good space for our dog and I knew it had to have lots of plants and trees and space for gardening. Clearly Grandma has had a huge impact on my life.

So when I reflect back over Grandma and her life, these are the four life lessons that Grandma has taught me:
-She taught me how to love, how to love unconditionally
-She taught me to keep a positive outlook on life, no matter what the circumstances
-Grandma instilled in me a strong work ethic
-Grandma taught me an intense respect for nature, both for God’s creatures and creation

Despite Grandma’s departure from this earth, her legacy will live on. It lives on through everyone she ever came into contact with, everyone who experienced her unconditional love, everyone who encountered her positive outlook, and every creature and plant that she nurtured. And she nurtured me. I love you Grandma, thank you for what you instilled in me. You are missed, but your light will keep shining on through all of us.

Tears of sadness and joy

God Bless you Claro. You are an inspiration

and you will be missed.

Me, Brock, Kerrie, Claro and

Mario (Healing Waters Guatemala Director)

Brock, Kerrie and Claro



Graham Johnson, one of the members of the
Wellshire team that went to Guatemala

Standing with Claro in front of his new house

I wrote about an incredible missionary family that I had the privilege of spending time with in Guatemala when I was there with the group from Wellshire in March. You can read that post here: http://blogadegregorio.blogspot.com/2009/05/great-ministry-in-guatemala.html

I was checking in with that family today, reading their blog and sending them an e-mail when I stumbled on this blog post written by Brock, the husband and father of the missionary family in Guatemala:
Claro

Claro died today.I have only known Claro for a few months, but I loved him. God
connected us, which always builds a friendship bond at a faster pace than
otherwise.

We met after his nephew came to us and asked if we would come visit his home. He had heard our ministry built houses in the community, and said his uncle Claro was in great need.He was right. Claro’s house was more like an old tool shed. Made of cornstalk, there were gaps everywhere, allowing space for the cold, rain, and wind to make life miserable. The inside was barely big enough for a twin-size makeshift bed, and a fire. The floors were dirt. His only belongings were a few dirty pieces of clothing, a some filthy dishes caked in soot, and a machete. He cooked over an open fire about 2 feet from his bed, giving him a constant inhale of smoke and dirt. No
electricity, no water, no plumbing… his house was cold and dark.

But Claro was a joy.

He smiled and talked. And talked, and talked... He told us how cold and dusty his house is, and how it always makes him sick. At 65 years old or so, he is difficult to understand (even for the locals), because he blurs and joins his words in a unique mutter. But he said “thank you God and thanks to you” no less than 20 times every time we talked.

When we finished his home, roughly the equivalent of a concrete block 2-car garage, he stood inside and cried. “Never in all my life did I think I would have a home like this.” That statement froze me. I wondered what kind of home I could envision myself standing in that would warrant the very same comment from me.

The house only has two small rooms. Instead of basking in the glory of his new space, he immediately moved his son, daughter in law, and granddaughter into the adjacent room.

2 weeks ago, with some friends that were visiting, we delivered Claro a new bed. When we moved out his old one, made of stiff hay, he said “don’t throw that away, I can sell that and make a little money!” We all laughed. He sat on his bed. We could tell he was amazed at how soft it was.

A few days later, some other friends had decided to bless Claro with a new chicken coup they had built. We went to his house to surprise him. After yelling for him and getting no answer, my friends waited at the street and I went up to see if he was home.I peeked in the front door and saw Claro lying in his bed. He was on top of his blanket, which made me smile as I realized he wasn’t cold. I felt bad waking him up, so I stood there and just looked at him for while. He looked comfortable.I called out his name and he popped up…said he was just taking a quick nap. We gave him the
chicken coup. He was very grateful. He told us he could manage the baby chicks
without a problem, and he was excited about the new micro business
opportunity.

That was a week ago. Today, I ran into Claro’s son on the street. Sobbing, he gave me the news that Claro has passed away suddenly in his sleep. Unexpected. Just like that, Claro was gone.

I just got home from the viewing in Claro’s house. He was lying in an open coffin, in the exact place that he had served us his famous fried chicken just over a month
earlier at his home dedication. As I stood over his coffin, looking at his face,
I could hear his scratchy voice: “Gracias a Dios, Gracias Ustedes.”

I am so humbled, so honored, to have had the opportunity to show the love of Jesus to Claro in the last couple months of his time on earth. After a long, difficult life living in extreme poverty, Claro spent his last couple months in comfort. I wish it could have been longer, but I believe he went out with a sense of dignity, an appreciation for God’s blessing, and the ability to leave behind a safe, warm home to his son.

Peace Claro. See you again soon. I’ll be looking forward to feasting together at the
Lord’s table – and having another round of that fried chicken.

I cried as I read this post. I cried tears of joy that Claro could see the love of Christ through the act of building a simple house and that he lived his last few months in comfort. I cried tears of sadness because I had the privilege of meeting Claro when I was in Guatemala in March, and he had touched me and other members of my group in a deeply profound way. Despite his humble surroundings, his love for God was unwaivering. This man was truly an inspiration and his departure from this earth, while glorious because he is now dwelling in heaven, was sad because he will be missed by those who had the privilege of knowing him.

Claro reminded me a lot of my grandma, who died two summers ago, just shy of her 100th birthday. My grandma was in incredible inspiration, with a quiet but profound faith. I miss her too and reading this story of Claro brought back some of those feelings. I will post the eulogy I wrote for my grandma in my next posting along with some photos.

I am finally getting to the end of A Long Obedience in the Same Direction by Eugene Peterson. Below is a bible study I led this morning on Chapter 13, a study on HUMILITY and Psalm 131. (You can read Psalm 131 by clicking on any of this sentence.)

Below is my bible study with quotes from the book:
“Christian faith needs continuous maintenance. . . Psalm 131 is a maintenance psalm. . . two things that Psalm 131 prunes away are unruly ambition and infantile dependency. . .” p. 149

“It is no easier to be a Chinese Christian than to be a Spanish Christian than to be a Russian Christian than to be a Brazilian Christian than to be an American Christian – nor more difficult. The way of faith deals with realities in whatever time and whatever culture.” P. 150

Do you agree with this statement? Why or why not?

“Our culture encourages and rewards ambition without qualification. We are surrounded by a way of life in which betterment is understood as expansion, as acquisition, as fame. Everyone wants to get more. To be on top, no matter what it is the top of, is admired. There is nothing recent about the temptation. It is the oldest sin in the book, the one that got Adam thrown out of the garden and Lucifer tossed out of heaven. What is fairly new about it is the general admiration and approval it receives.” P. 151

Is ambition a sin? What about ambition to see the success of a ministry? What makes it a sin if you think it is?

“The legend of Faustus, useful for so long in pointing out the folly of a god-defying pride, now is practically unrecognizable because the assumption of our whole society (our educational models, our economic expectations, even our popular religion) are Faustian. ¶ It is difficult to recognize pride as a sin when it is held up on every side as a virtue, urged as profitable and rewarded as an achievement.” P. 152

Does our culture value and glorify pride and ambition? If it is a sin, how do we get away from it if it is so embedded in our culture, down to our education system, economic system and popular religion?

Peterson defines aspiration as valuable, but ambition and arrogance as sins. (p. 152-153) How do you make a distinction between these two?

“There are some who conclude that since the great Christian temptation is to try to be everything, the perfect Christian solution is to be nothing. And so we have the problem of the doormat Christian and the dishrag saint. . .” p. 154

How do we strike this balance?

“Our Lord gave us the picture of the child as a model for Christian faith (Mk 10:14-16) not because of the child’s helplessness but because of the child’s willingness to be led, to be taught, to be blessed. God does not reduce us to a set a Pavlovian reflexes so that we mindlessly worship and pray and obey on signal; he establishes us with a dignity in which we are free to receive his word, his gifts, his grace. . . For God does not want us neurotically dependent on him but willingly trustful in him. And so he weans us. The period of infancy will not be sentimentally extended beyond what is necessary. The time of weaning is very often noisy and marked by misunderstandings: I no longer feel like I did when I was first a Christian. Does that mean I am no longer a Christian? Has God abandoned me? Have I done something terribly wrong?” P. 155-156

Is this weaning a one time occurrence or do we go through it again and again?

Because Eugene Peterson mentions having "faith like a child" so much in this chapter, it reminded me of the Jars of Clay Song:



Finally, I took some excerpts from the book and wrote the closing prayer below:
Prayer (p. 153-154): I accept God as my maker and creator; I will strive to grow day by day into an increasingly glorious creature in Christ, developing joy, experiencing love, maturing in peace. I will not try to run my own life or the lives of others; that is God’s business, I will not pretend to invent the meaning of the universe; I will accept what God has shown it meaning to be; I will not strut about demanding that I be treated as the center of my family or my neighborhood or my work, but seek to discover where I fit and do what I am good at.

Have a great weekend!

Playing for change - street musicians making a difference

I heard a story about this on NPR yesterday and after a little bit of digging, found these videos. This is AMAZING!

There is this guy named Mark Johnson who recorded and filmed a street musician in California singing "Stand by me" and then decided to start filming musicians in all corners of the world singing the same song. He states, " The idea for this project arose from a common belief that music has the power to break down boundaries and overcome distances between people. No matter whether people come from different geographic, political, economic, spiritual or ideological backgrounds, music has the universal power to transcend and unite us as one human race. And with this truth firmly fixed in our minds, we set out to share it with the world."

This first video is the "Stand by me" video. I will post a few others over the next few days/weeks. Really cool stuff!

What is joy? Do I have an obligation to be joyful/happy? What if I just want to be grumpy today?

A joyful girl in the Dominican Republic running to get her water from a Healing Waters system.

For those of you that know me, I am generally a pretty happy, upbeat person. However I have had my days and even extended periods of grumpiness (ask my wife, or some of my coworkers.)

I am still reading A Long Obedience in the Same Direction by Eugene Peterson. The chapter this week was on "Joy" and what Joy looks like in the world. It got me thinking about joy and whether or not I have an obligation to be joyful.

To begin with, what is Joy? Dictionary.com defines joy as:
1. the emotion of great delight or happiness caused by something exceptionally good or satisfying; keen pleasure; elation.

2. a source or cause of keen pleasure or delight; something or someone greatly valued or appreciated.
3. the expression or display of glad feeling; festive gaiety.
4. a state of happiness or felicity.

Ok, that is a start. Let's dig deeper.

Mother Teresa writes in the book No Greater Love:

"A joyful heart is a normal result of a heart burning with love. Joy is strength. . . We may not be able to give much but we can always give the joy that springs from a heart that is in love with God. All over the world people are hungry and thirsty for God's love. We meet that hunger by spreading joy. Joy is one of the best safeguards against temptation."

Wow, what profound words. And what a great way to view joy and the importance of joy.

Eugene Peterson writes:
"Joy is a characteristic of Christian pilgrimage. It is the second in Paul's list of the fruits of the spirit. . . This is not to say that joy is a moral requirement for Christian living. . . Joy is not a requirement of Christian discipleship, it is a consequence. . . We come to God because none of us have it within ourselves, except momentarily, to be joyous. Joy is a product of abundance; it is the overflow of vitality. It is life working together harmoniously. It is exuberance."

Well I have to say that I am relieved that Eugene Peterson thinks it is "not a requirement for Christian living" because if it was a requirement, I would fail. But his description of joy sure makes me want to have it in my life, I want to be a part of the "overflow of vitality" with my "life working together harmoniously" and a little bit of "exuberance" thrown in there.

I don't have a moral imperative to be joyful, but I want to be joyful. So how the heck do I do that? Eugene Peterson addresses how not to find authentic joy:

We try to get it (joy) through entertainment. We pay someone to make jokes, tell stories, perform dramatic actions, sing songs. We buy the vitality of another's imagination to divert and enliven our own poor lives. The enormous entertainment industry in America is a sign of the depletion of joy in our culture. Society is a bored, gluttonous king employing a court jester to divert it after an overindulgent meal. But that kind of joy never penetrates our lives, never changes our basic constitution. The effects are extremely temporary - a few minutes, a few hours, a few days at most. When we run our of money, the joy trickles away. We cannot make ourselves joyful. Joy cannot be commanded, purchased or arranged. . . A common but futile strategy for acheiving joy is trying to eliminate things that hurt: get rid of pain by numbing the nerve ends, get rid of insecurity by eliminating risks, get rid of disappointment by depersonalizing your relationships. And then try to lighten the boredom of such a life by buying joy in the form of vacations and entertainment."

All of this got me to thinking about the joy that I see when I am down in Latin America, both on vacation and when I am working with Healing Waters International. I work and interact with people who have so little, and yet they have so much joy in their lives. It is kind of embarrasing to realize that I can get uptight and grumpy over a home repair cost, or not having the best skis, and the people that I have the privilege of working with in Latin America have so much more happiness and joy with so much less in their lives. It really reiterates the notion that joy is not found through entertainment or through material things, it comes from within. And it comes from an authentic relationship with God.

How authentic is my relationship? Where is my joy?