Mike, it's Friday, and here's a thought from me today.
You wrote the other morning that you often feel a sense of despair after writing your prayer list. My question for you: What do you feel each morning after you write your gratitude list? A sense that you did your daily duty in writing it? A rise in the river of guilt you thrash about in, believing you're now even more indebted to me for gifts of which you feel undeserving?
How about this: Do you feel joy? I know that 'joy' is an uncomfortable word for you, and you rightly wrote yesterday that some of the challenges that come into your life often fit you better for my service than a steady stream of what you might call 'good' or 'acceptable'. "A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones." I know your bones have felt dry and your spirit crushed for a long time now.
Of course, gratitude is the antidote for that. But along with that gratitude, do this: open your heart to joy. I created you with a melancholy spirit because it allows you to touch others with thoughts that run deep, bleed honesty, and offer light out of your own darkness. Joy is not a natural response for you. It will take work.
My prayer for you this morning is that you not only feel a sense of joy today, but that your joy makes it from your heart to your face, giving the good medicine of cheer to those with dry and crushed bones. "I tell you these things so that in me you have peace and confidence. In this world you will have tribulation and trials - but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world."
Amen.
- God
