I am a fast eater! I grew up in a home with six children. If you didn’t eat fast, you didn’t get seconds. Well, that is my excuse anyway. But all kidding aside, I do eat fast. My wife says she wonders if I even really taste what I am eating because I eat so quickly.
I also talk fast. I walk fast. I make decisions fast. Everything I do, I do with urgency. Even when I am in no particular hurry, I am still moving fast. That is just my personality. That is how I am wired. Lately, however, I have begun to ask myself. “What am I missing by going through life at such a fast pace?
I have come to realize that a fast-paced life can outpace my ability to experience joy!
Slow down and enjoy life. It's not only the scenery you miss by going too fast; you also miss the sense of where you are going and why. - Eddie Cantor
We can either enjoy life or endure it. It all depends on our perspective and our attitude. As the trite saying goes, we can begin each day by saying, “Good Lord, it’s morning!” or “Good morning, Lord!”
As we open our eyes each morning, how we anticipate the coming day shapes the entire day. Our approach can be that life is harsh and toilsome (the meaning of the word “dure”) and that we just need to trudge through without giving in or giving up. Or, we can look at each day through the lens of delight and the expectation of joy.
Perspective is everything! How we fundamentally view life impacts every day we live. However, with the pace of life today, even if we desire to live with joy, we may be moving too fast that we miss the very joy we seek.
Enjoy basically means to be “in joy.” To sit in it, to dwell in it, to have it all around us. We live “in” a house or an apartment. It surrounds us; we are in its midst. In order to leave our place of dwelling, we must go outside of it.
We can view joy in the same way. When we live in joy (enjoy), it surrounds us. We are consumed by it. But what exactly is joy?
Joy goes beyond happiness. Joy transcends circumstances. Joy is not an emotion. It is an interior state of being. In the Greek of the New Testament, the word translated as joy is chara. It conveys a deep, inner contentment grounded in the presence of God. It is a result of knowing, loving, and trusting God and is rooted in his unchanging character. It is both above and beyond our circumstances. In the midst of pain, disappointment, sickness, turmoil, and all the other junk life throws at us, we can still live in joy. We can still enjoy life.
Let me give you a picture that helps explain how this can happen. Suppose you are in your house and as you walk across your bedroom, you stub your toe. You yell out in pain. It hurts terribly. Maybe you even broke your toe! But you are still in your house. You haven’t left.
When we live in joy (enjoy life) and experience the trials and troubles of life, we do not have to leave our dwelling place of joy. We can still dwell (abide) in Christ - the source of our joy.
If joy is interior and centered in the presence of God, a faster pace of life presents the danger of “outrunning” God’s blessings. We can never literally outrun God, for he is everywhere (omnipresence) and infinite, and we are not.
However, we can “outrun” what God desires to do in and with our lives - including producing joy.
In Galatians 5:22, joy is described as a fruit of the Spirit. This means that we cannot create it ourselves. It can only be produced in our lives by the action of God’s Holy Spirit.
We are commanded in 1 Thessalonians 5:19 not to quench or stifle the Spirit. We cannot manufacture the fruit of the Spirit, but we can stifle the working of God’s Spirit in our lives. One way we can do that is by moving so fast that we do not recognize how the Spirit is attempting to work in us.
We can hinder the creation of joy in our lives by always being in a hurry!
We can run right past the joy that God is trying to bless us with without even recognizing how he wants to bless and shape us into the image of Jesus.
Jesus walked in perfect joy while on earth, and he promised us that joy!
John 15:11 NLT - I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!
The question is, “Are you going through life so fast that you miss when God is trying to create joy in your life?”
How often do you slow down to just be with God? I am not talking about a morning devotion of reading God’s Word, a devotional book, or even praying through a prayer list.
I am talking about slowing down to just sit in the presence of God - to listen to him. To let his presence overwhelm you. To hear his soft whisper speak into your spirit. To let Jesus give you the joy he promised.
Reflect back on the last few days. What is something you probably missed enjoying because you were moving too fast? Think about how you could slow down to enjoy more of life.
Think about how God wants to give you deep, indwelling joy that surpasses anything that you are going through or have gone through. Think of how and when you can slow down so God can fill you with joy.
Then, commit to slowing down to enjoy God and how he blesses your life!
oh yes someone said the j word