Friday, June 30, 2006

 

DE DAH DAY MOMENTS

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DE DAH DAY MOMENTS
By John Ortberg
Jun 30, 2006

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint

my head with oil; my cup overflows. PSALM 23:5



Some time ago, I was giving a bath to our kids. Johnny was still in

the tub, Laura was out and safely in her Carter's, and I was trying to

get Mallory dried off. She was in no particular hurry. In fact, she was

doing what has come to be known in our family as the Dee Dah Day dance.

This consists of Mallory running around and around in circles, singing

over and over again: "dee dah day, dee dah day."



It is the dance of great joy. When words are inadequate and she is too

happy to hold it in any longer, she has to dance to release her joy.

But on this particular occasion I was irritated. "Mallory, hurry!" So

she did. She began running in circles faster and faster and chanting

"dee dah day" more rapidly.



"No, Mallory, that's not what I mean. Stop with the 'dee dah day' stuff

and get over here so I can dry you off. Hurry!"



Then she asked a profound question. "Why?"



I had no answer. I had nowhere to go, nothing pressing to do. I was

just so addicted to hurry, trapped in the rut of moving from one task

to another. Here was life, here was joy, here was an invitation to the

dance right in front of me, and I was missing it. Ironically, what

keeps me from joy is often a preoccupation with myself and my own

little agenda. That very selfishness keeps me from noticing and

delighting in the myriad of small gifts God offers each day. But for

Mallory, life is not that way. She just lives.



While she's taking a bath, it's a dee dah day moment. When it's time

to get dried, that's another one. After she's dry, it'll be time for

another. Life is a series of dee dah day moments. Not every moment is

happy, of course. There are still times that call for tears. But each

moment is pregnant with possibility. She doesn't miss many of them. She

is teaching me about joy. And I need to learn.



Joy is at the heart of God's plan for human beings. Joy is at the heart

of grace. And the reason is worth pondering: joy is at the heart of God

himself. My guess is that most of us seriously underestimate God's

capacity for joy. He also knows sorrow. But the sorrow of God, like

the anger of God, is his temporary response to a fallen world. It will

be banished forever from his heart the day the world is set right. Joy

is his basic character. In the words of Dallas Willard, "God is the

happiest Being in the universe."



As creatures made in his image, we are to reflect God's fierce joy in

life. The Bible speaks not just about our need for joy in general, but

for that particular kind of joy which characterizes God. After teaching

on the need for obediance, Jesus told his friends, "I have told you

this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete"

(John 15:11). The problem with people, according to Jesus, is not that

we are too happy for God's taste; it is that we are not happy enough.



The apostle Paul put it like this: "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will

say it again: Rejoice!" (Phil. 4:4). This is a command. Joylessness is

a serious sin-one to which religious people are particularly prone, and

perhaps the one most tolerated by the church. How often have people

misunderstood God because they attributed to him the grim, judgmental,

defensive, soul-wearying spirit of many who claimed to be his

followers?



We have badly underestimated the necessity of joy. The prophet

Nehemiah tells his people, " . . . the joy of the LORD is your

strength" (Neh. 8:10). Think about those words. Joy is strength. Joy

produces energy. Its chronic absence will create weakness. In the words

of Dallas Willard, "failure to attain a deeply satisfying life always

has the effect of making sinful actions seem good." If we label all

joys and pleasures as unspiritual, it can actually weaken us in our

efforts to live godly lives.



People who want to pursue joy need particularly to practice the

discipline of celebration. This is a primary reason why the Old

Testament puts great emphasis on feast days. Times of feasting were to

be transforming t experiences-just as times of meditating or fasting

were. Celebration generally involves the practice of activities that

naturally bring us pleasure-gathering with people we love, eating,

singing and dancing, playing, surrounding ourselves with beauty-and as

we're doing these things, reflecting on how gracious God must be to

have given us such wonderful gifts.



When we celebrate, we exercise our ability to see and feel goodness in

the simplest gifts of God. We are able to delight today in something we

wouldn't have even noticed yesterday. Our capacity for joy increases.



The psalmist says, "This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice

and be glad in it" (Ps. 118:24). What day is he talking about? Two

verses earlier, in Psalm 118:22, it says that "the stone the builders

rejected has become the capstone." In other words, what everyone else

thinks is worthless is actually used by God as vital and strategic in

his building. This time of acceptance by God even in the midst of

rejection by people is the very day we are told to rejoice in.

Therefore, any day-and every day, each with its shortcomings-is the day

we can see God work. It is the day God made, and which Christ's death

redeemed. If you are going to know joy, it must be in this day.



How much of our lives do we spend waiting to live? waiting to

experience joy? We believe the illusion that joy will come someday when

conditions change. We go to school and think we'll be happy when we

graduate and get married. We get married and decide we'll be happy when

we have kids. We have kids and decide we'll be happy when they grow up

and move out. When they do, we lament that we were happier when they

were home. If you are going to know joy, it must be in this day.



This raises an obvious question. Can joy be genuinely embraced even in

the presence of pain, frustration, or suffering? It is here that we

make one of the most surprising discoveries about joy-often it is

people closest to suffering who have the most powerful joy. People who

were close to Mother Teresa say that instead of being overwhelmed by

the suffering, she fairly glowed with joy. An officer imprisoned by the

Nazis with Dietrich Bonhoeffer (a German pastor who was later executed

by Hitler) said about him, "He always spread an atmosphere of happiness

and joy over the least incident and profound gratitude for the mere

fact that he was alive."



Joy in this world is most always joy in spite of something. It is a

"defiant nevertheless." It is a joy that holds tight to the belief that

God has not yet written the last chapter-and that when he does, joy

will reign unblemished and uninterrupted.



If you don't rejoice today, you will not rejoice at all. If you wait

until conditions are perfect, you will wait until you die. This is the

day that the Lord has made. This is the Dee Dah Day.



As a spiritual exercise this week: live in joy, as best you can, each

day for one full week. Ask yourself this question, "What would this day

be like if I allowed God to 'prepare a meal' for me, to 'anoint my head

with oil,' to 'fill my cup' to overflowing?" Here are a few ideas, but

by all means feel free to invent your own ways to enjoy life with your

gracious Shepherd.



*When you sit down for a meal, imagine your Shepherd preparing the

table just for you. Slow down, enjoy the gift of food in his presence.

* Consider planning a celebratory evening with some friends or

family-just to delight in God's goodness together.

* Pursue a favorite activity this week. Try to consciously engage in

it with the Lord as your companion.

* Be particularly aware of little joys as you go about each day. Take

note of relational moments, moments of scenic beauty, meaningful

accomplishments, moments that make you laugh.

* When you worship with the church body this week, express your joy

directly to God for the ordinary and extraordinary ways he has made

your "cup overflow."

* When irritations and frustrations arise, resolve in your mind that

you will choose joy.



If this is a particularly painful era for you, some of these ideas may

feel awkward. God doesn't want you to pretend. But resolve, as best you

can each day this week, to hold on to "nevertheless joy." Ask the Lord

to prepare a table for you even "in the presence af [your] enemies."

Consider making a list of all the blessing you have in God, even in the

middle of the difficulty.



PRAYER
Lord I want to follow you as your disciple and to love you wholeheartedly with all that I have. Fill my heart with faith, hope, and love that I may always find peace and joy in your presence.





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