Friday, June 30, 2006
DE DAH DAY MOMENTS
| F O O D F O R T H O U G H T |  |
| Subscribe Unsubscribe Change E-mail View Archive DE DAH DAY MOMENTS By John Ortberg Jun 30, 2006 |
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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