If the sky falls down tonight, it's gonna be alright.

It's another lovely Sunday. It's months away from the post wherein I committed to a daily Sunday post. Failure. It would be good for me to write regularly. It would be good for me to do many things that I do not do regularly, but should. I think this is the most depressing thing in my life (to start on a blue note) -- all the things that one should do regularly that I do not. A quick list:

1.) Read my bible
2.) Paint
3.) Send out letters to my friends
4.) Tell myself I am just who God made me to be, and should be grateful.
5.) My laundry
6.) Cook for myself
7.) Take my own lunch to work
8.) Blog
9.) Meditate / Go to church
10.) Work out

That's my top ten for today. My major excuse is that I am living at home until school is done, and that I am a pretty busy person. However, today, I actually managed a little bit of number 9. The sermon was on fruits of the spirit, in particular, joy. I am not entirely sure I agree with the pastor's interpretation of the passages read, but it WAS a new perspective. Joy comes from God, but we can do particular things to encourage an environment conducive to a joyful spirit. We can stay away from sensual and social sins, we can read our bibles, tithe, and fellowship. I agree that there are a great many things that are straight up killjoys by their very nature, and that living in any kind of sin is going to create a obstacles for any sense of positive environment.

Laziness, malice, and fear really stand out to me as barriers to my own experience of joy -- but I have to say that lately I have been very joyful, and grateful, and loved. God is at work in my heart, in my home, at work, and even in my car. Lately, just remembering Calvary has been enough to bring me peace. In a devotional I read earlier last month written by Oswald Chambers, he says basically that it isn't our service or our good works that should be our central focus as Christians. It should be an hourly reminder that we were made clean and pure by our Savior's death on the cross. The pinnacle of everything we live for, the "this was made possible by..." advertisement that should come before every significant and insignificant moment in our lives, is Jesus. Simply Jesus. Hallelujah, am I right? Lord, it is so easy to forget! It is SO easy to get caught up in discipline, fellowship, and obedience... when those things come as a result of your divine intervention and providence. So easy to confuse creating an environment conducive to Joy for the power of the Holy Spirit, the love of the Father, and the sacrifice of the Son. And that's all it takes to get me teary eyed, and feeling really great to be alive.

Life is sad, it is painful, sometimes it's even excruciating. Some days, like today, you can spend time with sweet people, do everything right, get a lot of things done, and still wake up sad from your nap for seemingly no reason. But then, you take a little time to remember Jesus, and it's all good. Really.

I pray that there'll never be a day where remembering Jesus' sacrifice is less than awesome and transformational for me. That, my friends, is where all the power of goodness and love is. The end. :)