Do, Love, Walk, Joy.
For those of you not familiar with me or God's story these words may hold little meaning. To me, they hold my world together. This blog is an effort to show how these four words impact my life on daily level. This blog is also an effort to show what God has been teaching me on this journey we call life. These four words are the foundation of that journey.
"He has told you, O man, what is good. To do justice, love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God." (Micah 6:8) Do. Love. Walk. This sums up the Old Testament. This is what God has been trying to communicate the whole time. Do, Love, and Walk. Yet, so often as Chirstians we miss that. I confess, at times, I've missed it. We bring in so much other theology, doctrine, programming, outreaches, missions statments, service projects, sunday school lessons, potlucks, and on and on. While these things may be all well and good in there appropriate times and places, too often they become the focus. They shouldn't.
This is what happened in Israel. They lost sight of what was truly good. So caught up in the ritualistic system of sacrifices - they missed the point. They missed God. They come before him, confused as to why he is upset with him. They ask, "With what shall we come before the Lord with" (Micah 6:6) and then go on to name countless of meanial sacrfices that maybe could appease their maker. And God, in his comapssion, reminds them yet again of what he truly wants - their hearts. And their lives.
He doesn't want our hollow sacrifices anymore than he wanted theirs. He want's our lives. For anyone who complains Christainity is to confusing to follow - it's not. We've made it that way. But it's not. All we're called to do is to Love God and Love Others. Period. (Matthew 22:37-40) All that other stuff - it will fall into place once we get that down.
Joy. My parents, the godly people that they are, sought to give me a name that above being "pretty" had significance in its etymology that would hopefully define the person I would become. Joy. It's more than happiness. dictionary.com defines it this way "the emotion of great delight or happiness caused by something exceptionally good or satisfying". I like the part "caused by something exceptionally good". Joy comes from a deeper place than happiness. Joy comes from God. Joy: my middle name, a fruit of the Spirit, coming from God, something that I experience when I'm doing, loving, and walking. Joy is what makes the doing, and the loving, and the walking worth it. Joy is my reward because God is my reward.
So this is my story of doing, loving, and walking with joy. My frame of reference for all that I do. The theme of my journey. Won't you come along?
