“Discovering Joy Amidst Monotony” | 12/6/2020
12/6/20 | Will DuVal
Wake up. Turn off the alarm. Disable the BACKUP alarm, in case I overslept the first one. Go potty. Turn the shower on. Brush teeth while the shower warms up. Shower. Dry off. Get dressed. Put contact lenses in. Shave. Lotion. Deodorant. Cologne. Q-tip ears. Tip-toe into the living room without squeaking the floors too loudly. Put the dog’s shock collar on, let her outside. Fill her food and water bowls. Put her medicine in some cheese. Toss out yesterday’s coffee filter. Rinse out the coffee pot. Fill up the pot, scoop the coffee, start the coffee-maker. Grab my Bible. Sit on the couch. Pray over the day. Let the dog back in. Give her the cheese. Pour the coffee. Sit back down. Open my Bible. And see how much I can read before Elijah wakes up, and wakes Ellery and Polly up. And we’re into breakfast, & family devotionals, and starting the day.
Those are the more or less the first 45 minutes or so of my day, virtually EVERY day, for as long as I can remember. And I bet you could share YOUR routine as well, and I’m guessing it’d be equally repetitious, uniform… MONOTONOUS. “lacking in variety; tediously unvarying”.
-By the time you die, you’re gonna spend 100 days, almost ONE-THIRD of an entire YEAR of your life, brushing your teeth.
-You’ll spend about 27 YEARS.... asleep.
Our lives, on the whole, are UTTERLY - BORING, aren’t they? Take the person here with the most INTERESTING life - Steve Liang is Head of Infectious Diseases at WashU (understandably, they’ve been joining us virtually the past 9 months) - but if I could be a fly on the wall throughout Steve’s workday, I bet it’s FASCINATING… for MAYBE... a QUARTER of the day? 5 or 6 hours? And I bet the vast majority of his time is spent on... paperwork. Filing reports. Updating spreadsheets. On the phone, coordinating with other local hospitals. In his car, commuting to and from the hospital; the average American will spend roughly a YEAR of their life, in the car, commuting to and from work…
Our lives, even the most INTERESTING among us, are for the most part, thoroughly MUNDANE.
And for MANY of us, they only got MORE monotonous this spring, didn’t they? All of a sudden those 45 minutes you used to spend in the car commuting seem RIVETING now. Like one of the highlights of the old, glory days, because at least it was something DIFFERENT, to break up the monotony.
Some of our boring lives have barely changed at all. My wife, God love her, she’s a stay-at-home mom; and can I just say this: stay-at-home moms are heroes. Frontline healthcare workers? SURE. I SO appreciate y’all. I can’t even imagine what y’all are dealing with, day in and day out right now. God bless you. We pray for you. But I’ll just tell you: for ME, given the choice, I’ll take your job in a HEARTBEAT over my wife’s. I ask her every day when I get home: “How was your day, Babe?” And literally every day, the answer is the same: “My day was… the same. By the time I get done with one load of laundry, it’s time to start another. Unload the dishwasher, it’s time to reload it. Change one diaper, he poops again.” And then I’VE got the nerve, sinner that I am, to complain that I had to spend the whole day catching up on emails; when checking her email is the most captivating part of Polly’s day. Those 10 or 15 minutes she gets to escape the laundry and dishes and diapers for just a moment. My wife is my hero.
Now what does ANY of this have to do with CHRISTMAS!? Last week we started a 4-part Advent sermon series entitled “The Weary World Rejoices”, in which we’re examining the various dimensions of weariness - what MAKES us weary - in order to better understand the weary world into which Jesus was born 2,000 years ago, so we can better understand our OWN weary world today, as we trudge on in exile, awaiting Christ’s RETURN and the consummation of history. And last week we discussed WAITING. Waiting makes us weary. God’s people waited 2,000 years, from the time of God’s promise to Abram, for their Messiah. And we’ve been waiting 2,000 years SINCE then for his return. And at times, it gets tiring. We begin to feel “impatiently dissatisfied,” as weariness is defined.
And all the MORE so, when the wait, is MONOTONOUS. Monotony is actually DEFINED as: “wearisome uniformity or lack of variety”. Doing the same thing, all day, every day, is EXHAUSTING, isn’t it? And if we’re honest, we’re still pretty spoiled. We’ve got it good. We’re not working in the sweatshops in China. Most of us don’t work for soul-less companies like Initech, from the movie Office Space. As a pastor, of course, I can’t recommend you watch it (I watched it before I was saved, so it’s okay). But I think of poor Peter, cooped up in his tiny little cubicle, all day, every day, beside the receptionist, who’s on her phone, on repeat: “Corporate accounts payable, Mina speaking… JUST a moment…”; “Corporate accounts payable, Mina speaking… JUST a moment…” Over… and over… and OVER. This is the real stuff of real life.
And just like no one knew WAITING better than the Jewish people, as we saw last week, no one knew MONOTONY better either. That was one of Jesus’ PRIMARY CRITIQUES of 1st c. Judaism when he showed up on the scene: it had become nothing but mindless, rote, empty, religious ritualism. Their WORSHIP, had become monotonous. And yet, we’re also gonna see that Scripture actually calls us to a life of BALANCE, between the extraordinary, and the VERY ordinary. The momentous, and the mundane. Remember Ecclesiastes ch.3, made famous by the Byrds, “To everything (turn, turn, turn)... There is a season (turn, turn, turn)” - “A time to be born, a time to die… A time to plant, a time to reap”. According to Scripture, there’s also a time for newness, and excitement, but there’s ALSO a time to be banal, perhaps even boring.
So we’re gonna examine 3 contrasting pairs of biblical truths this morning. This tension, this life of balance we’re called to live. Speaking of ordinary, this may not be the most PROFOUND sermon you’ve ever heard, but I pray it will be a blessing and an encouragement to you this morning. To a stay-at-home mom. To someone listening to this on Monday morning online in the office while you fill out your TPS reports.
ORDINARILY, I would ask you to stand for the reading of God’s word. Because ordinarily, we camp out in just onepassage of Scripture for the bulk of the morning. But appropriately, I think, given the topic, we’re gonna mix things up a little today, and we’re gonna bounce around a VARIETY of passages to see what God’s word has to teach us about this idea of monotony. So let’s pray and dive in...
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Point #1 - ROUTINES are good, but they can become WEARISOME.
ROUTINES are GOOD, but they can become WEARISOME.
Consider Genesis 1:14 - “And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons,[f] and for days and years”. What does that tell us? It tells us that ROUTINES are GOOD, because they were invented by GOD. On the fourth day of CREATION, nonetheless. Routines predate HUMANITY! Before we even came on the scene, God was bringing up the sun every morning, and the moon every night. Why? To mark signs, and seasons; days, and years. To give the world ORDER. Because…
1 Corinthians 14:33 - “Our God is a god of order.” So he implements rhythms, cycles, and patterns. Part of what it means for US to be created in God’s IMAGE, then, is that we are rhythmic creatures. We’re habitual creatures. God designed us with biological clocks, circadian rhythms; we are MEANT to have routines. I LOVE my routines. You might get bored as I list off my morning ritual for you, but I get excited; I LOVE it. If you DON’T love yours, maybe it’s time to get a new routine!
Some folks bristle at the very NOTION of routine. But there’s something deeply WRONG with the person who REJECTS all repetition. For whom EVERYTHING always has to be new, fresh, different. No 2 showers can be the same. No 2 work days. No 2 sexual partners. Never eat the same meal twice, wear the same sweater twice. Friends: that is a BROKEN person. Actually, that was God’s curse on CAIN, if you remember, from Genesis 4: “You will be a restless wanderer on the earth”. We are meant to settle down. And settle into routines. Because God is a God of order.
And YET, on the OTHER hand, Routines can become WEARISOME.
They say “variety is the “spice of life”. It reminds me of the story of the Israelites, when they were wandering through the desert for 40 years after their Exodus from Egypt, and all they had to eat for weeks? For Months? For YEARS? Was MANNA? We hear in Numbers 11:4-6 “Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving. And the people of Israel also wept again and said, “Oh that we had meat to eat! 5 We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. 6 But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.”
Now listen, we’re often quick to beat up on the ancient Israelites. You think, “This was bread from HEAVEN! God was supernaturally raining down this manna, every day, to keep his people from starvation; the NERVE of them to complain.” But in their defense, take a look at how Scripture itself describes the stuff: “ Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its appearance like that of bdellium. [I’ve never heard of bdellium, but you can Google a picture for yourself - it looks bdisgusting. That’s why they called it ‘manna’ - the Hebrew literally translates: “What IS it?!” And have you tasted coriander seed lately? I don’t think I’d ever tasted it, straight, so I took one for the team last night and tried it - it’s not particularly delicious. So...] 8 The people went about and gathered it and ground it in handmills or beat it in mortars and boiled it in pots and made cakes of it. So the taste was like the taste of wafers baked with oil. 9 When the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell with it.” So you know these wafers we’ve been using for communion lately? Not the old, pre-COVID, delicious Trader Joe’s crackers. I’m talking the new, tasteless COVID wafers. Imagine collecting those, WET every morning, from the dew, then grinding them down... boiling them… all I’m saying is: let’s cut the Israelites a little slack. You and I complain about FAR less, than having to eat THAT every day for months on end. Listen: God could rain down my FAVORITE food - he could send down free Carrabba’s Chicken Bryan every single day, and I’m just gonna tell you, by the third day, I’m gonna be like, “Umm, God, can I at least get a side of pasta with this? Maybe a dessert; I like to finish my meals with a little something sweet…”
Because variety is the spice of life. And in the same way that we’re built for routines, the Bible says we also need variety. Just listen to how King SOLOMON - the richest, wisest man in the history of the world; like, if ANYONE could have escaped the weariness of monotony, it was THIS guy - just listen to his philosophical musings, on the meaning of life:
“"Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless." [That’s a rather BLEAK start…]
3 What does man gain by all the toil
at which he toils under the sun? [Solomon’s gonna remind us in chapter 3: “you can work as hard as you want… make as much money as you want… you’re still gonna DIE like a DOG; man is no better off than the beasts - we all just DIE, if not for JESUS...]
4 A generation goes, and a generation comes,
but the earth remains forever.
5 The sun rises, and the sun goes down,
and hastens[b] to the place where it rises.
6 The wind blows to the south
and goes around to the north;
around and around goes the wind,
and on its circuits the wind returns.
7 All streams run to the sea,
but the sea is not full;
to the place where the streams flow,
there they flow again.
8 All things are full of weariness;
a man cannot even utter it; [Solomon observes those same patterns in nature, from Genesis ch.1, but his take on it is: WHAT’S THE POINT? The sun comes UP, goes DOWN, comes UP, goes DOWN… TO WHAT END?]
the eye is not satisfied with seeing,
nor the ear filled with hearing.
9 What has been... is what will be,
and what has been done... is what will be done,
and there is nothing new under the sun.
10 Is there a thing of which it is said,
“See, this is new”?
It has been already
in the ages before us.
11 There is no remembrance of former things,[c]
nor will there be any remembrance
of later things[d] yet to be
among those who come after... [Not only are you gonna DIE; but you’re gonna be FORGOTTEN, FOREVER, by later generations. So he CONCLUDES...]
It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.” (Ecclesiastes 1:2-13)
Boy, how’s THAT for a feel-good message this morning? I would love to hear Joel Osteen’s commentary on that one: “From the author of “Your Best Life Now” “Think Better, Live Better”, and “Empty out the Negative” comes a new, soon to be WORST-seller: “Life is MEANINGLESS”!
And Solomon is experiencing such existential ANGST, in large part, because he feels like there’s no way of ESCAPING life’s monotony. But here’s what G. K. Chesterton, the famous 20th c. theologian, here’s his take on it; I LOVE this; he says: “Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, “Do it again”; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God IS strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that he has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.” Ohhhh - that’s GOOD!!
Could it be, friends, as Andre Yee suggests, that perhaps “our inability to see God in our daily monotony has less to do with the nature of our tasks, and more to do with the effects of sin on our childlike joy”? (Andre Yee, “Grace for Monotonous Work,” www.desiringgod.org)
Yee goes on, and says: “Here’s the challenge we face: How do we approach the monotony of our lives with a view that is glorifying to God and satisfying to our souls? ...How do we glorify God when we’re cleaning out our email inbox or filing paperwork?” “… We are called to shape the world we live in, to bring order to it [That’s Genesis 2; God put man in the garden to WORK it, to CULTIVATE it…]. And in the modern world this may take the look and feel of organizing paperwork, filing reports, and cleaning our desks. When we carry out these monotonous tasks with joy, we exercise order in a world rendered disorderly by sin, and we reflect the faithfulness of our Father.” That’s a good reminder this morning, brothers and sisters.
Point #2 - let’s make this even more explicitly SPIRITUAL, now:
“Some REPETITION is important, but our WORSHIP must remain fresh.
REPETITION is important, but WORSHIP’s gotta be fresh.
Look with me at Jeremiah 6:16 - the prophet Jeremiah warns God’s people:
“Thus says the Lord:
“Stand by the roads, and look,
and ask for the ancient paths,
where the good way is; and walk in it,
and find rest for your souls.
But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’”
There’s a REASON that path is carved out there in the landscape; because generation after generation after generation before you, repeatedly, trod that exact same path, because it is a TRIED AND TRUSTY path. Deviate from that path at your own peril!
Sometimes I wonder how much of Israel’s moral failings in the OT, their perpetual tendency to FORGET about the Lord, and fall back into IDOLATRY, how much of it was really the result of BOREDOM! “We just want a NEW path! Yahweh is SOOO 15th c. BC; get with the times: Baal is so hot right now. The Temple in Jerusalem? Boring! You gotta check out these new HIGH PLACES up in the hills… this Asherah pole… this Golden Calf…”
And are we any different today, friends? How many Christians today, churches today, have forsaken the ancient paths? For 2,000 years, Christians have devoted themselves to God’s word, and to prayer. But today, much of American Christianity is all surface and no substance. We live in the Information Age, with endless resources, for FREE, at our fingertips, and yet biblical illiteracy in this country is at an all-time high. We don’t want to be one of those churches, West Hills.
That’s why I’m excited to announce this morning, a new ministry we’re gonna be rolling out in 2021; I say “new”, but it’s OLD. It’s 2,000 years old. God’s people gathering in small groups to study His word together, pray together, share life together. That’s a big part of what our life groups here are aimed at doing. But with a few key differences. For one thing, there’s just only so much depth you can go into, both in your discussion of SCRIPTURE, as well as the personal details of your life, when you’re meeting with a coed, mixed group of 10 or 12 people. The other thing is that some of our life groups understandably diversify their study together. They’ll read through Tim Keller’s book on Prayer, or watch through Francis Chan’s video series on MARRIAGE. Or even further unpack my sermon from the previous Sunday. All good things. But listen: there is simply no substitute in the Christian’s life for personal, direct, consistent, DAILY time spent with God in His word. Speaking of Ecclesiastes; Solomon says “Of making many books there is no end”. Man - there are a TON of great Christian books out there. But there’s only one that’s REALLY stood the test of time. Only one that when the flowers have faded and the grass has withered, will still remain. And as a church, we wanna get you in THAT book.
So if you’re on our email list; if you don’t get our emails - you can give us your contact info so we can get you plugged in - but you’ll be getting an email this next week, inviting you starting in January to join a “Discipleship Group”, if you’re looking for that kind of community, that accountability, that commitment to personal Bible study and prayer. They’ll probably take a lot of different forms. It’s not a one-size fits all. Some of y’all in your 20s and 30s may be looking to get connected with other single, 20 and 30 year olds. Others may be interested in a MENTOR, someone more your parents’ age who’s willing to INVEST in you and share from their wisdom and experience of having walked those ancient paths twice as long as you have. I think it’s a win-win either way.
Some of y’all might decide “I’m in a life group; that’s enough for me.” Others are going to see a value in BOTH a life group and a D- Group. Some LIFE groups may decide to start alternating weeks between meeting as a mixed group, and meeting as guys and girls separately to do this. I hope that at least SOME of the D- groups include NON-West Hillians. I hope you steal the idea and the resources I send you, and invite a few unchurched moms from your book-club… a couple guys from your ultimate frisbee league… invite them to read through Scripture and pray together each week. Man, how exciting would THAT be! That is Great Commission stuff right there; that’s “going out and making disciples”, like we say we want to do every Sunday here.
We have a handful of folks here who’ve been doing this, more or less, for the last 2 years now - we read through the New Testament in 2019 and the Old Testament in 2020 (it was a GREAT year to read the OT, by the way; 2020 has been a very OT kind of year…) - but some of Y’ALL might be wondering, “What’s next?” I just got DONE reading through the Bible, these past 2 years…? Here’s where I wanna pull in that NEXT passage: Philippians 3:1, where the apostle Paul writes: ““Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you.” And then he reminds them AGAIN of the danger of false teachers. The importance of enduring through suffering. The centrality of the gospel. See, there really IS nothing new under the sun, but contrary to what Solomon suggests, when we’re being reminded over and over and over again of the GOSPEL, when we’re reading through the BIBLE over and over again, repetition is a REALLY good thing. It’s a VITAL thing. Because as long as sin still lives inside us, this side of eternity, we are gonna fight against “gospel amnesia”. We forget. Who God is. Who we are. What Christ has done FOR us. And we can tend to live as functional atheists. That’s why we need the right HABITS. The right ROUTINES. The Spiritual Disciplines, that we just got done teaching through, in one of our Sunday school classes. The ancient paths.
I’ll just quickly mention one other: corporate worship, is a habit, a discipline, a routine worth repeating. Hebrews 10:25 - “do not neglect to meet together”. Even if that means virtually for some of you for now. We miss y’all. But I hope you’re not neglecting to meet with us. We had 112 folks in attendance in person last Sunday. Only 19 joined online. The Sunday before: 118 in person; 12 online. That’s 130 people; out of almost 300 in our directory now. And the problem is, by definition if you’re hearing me say this, you’re not one of the people I’m WORRIED about; but Church - some of your brothers and sisters need a phone call from someone other than their pastor this week, checking in on them: “Hey, how you doing? We’ve been missing you. Have you been able to stay connected online? How can I pray for you this week?” That’s what we DO for one another, as a church. As a spiritual family.
AND YET, even as we recognize that repetition is IMPORTANT, we have to realize that our WORSHIP has to stay FRESH. That was a big part of Jesus’ beef with the Pharisees, the 1st c. Jewish leaders. He said in Mark 7 - “you honor me with your lips, but your hearts are far FROM me”. He said in Matthew 23 - “you tithe mint and dill and cumin,” but it’s just an empty ritual; you’re not offering your HEARTS to the Lord. Jesus instructed his followers: “When you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.” (Matthew 6:7) Certain forms of 1st c. pagan worship advocated for the mindless repetition of magic words and phrases that allegedly coerced the gods into listening and responding. Jesus said: that’s NOT how God works. He’s not your magic genie. He can’t be manipulated. And he DOESN’T require some kind of secret password before He’ll listen to you. He’s your heavenly FATHER; He LOVES you; He’s ALWAYS listening. He wants to hear from your heart.
Can we get real practical and a little personal for a minute: some of y’all STILL pray in King James English! You know that God is omni-lingual, right?! Like, YES, we should approach God with a healthy fear and awe and reverence; he’s NOT your BFF. And yet, Jesus specifically TAUGHT us to pray: “Our FATHER… Abba.” Worship is about a RELATIONSHIP with the LIVING God. He’s a person. But that also means that just like we can get stuck in a “rut” in our human relationships, your marriage, becomes monotonous and mundane, you can get hit a rut in your relationship with God as well. That’s what Jesus was pointing out to the Pharisees. That’s what the prophet Hosea pointed out to their forefathers; God said:
“What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?
What shall I do with you, O Judah?
Your love is like a morning cloud,
like the dew that goes early away….
I desire steadfast love[a] and not sacrifice,
the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” (Hosea 6:4-6)
God had instituted the entire sacrificial system in the OT Law as a means of repairing RELATIONSHIP between Himself and sinful humanity, but His people became so ACCLIMATED to their own sin, so ACCUSTOMED to making the same sacrifices over, and over, and over again to be forgiven and restored, that even something as sacred as taking a life, slitting the throat of their favorite pet goat, had become just an empty ritual. And that was the state of Jewish worship in Jesus’ day; the book of Hebrews describes it well: “And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
[This was MONOTONOUS religion on steroids - just imagine if YOU had to sacrifice an animal every time YOU sinned! We’re talking a LOT of dead animals, friends. You could hear and smell the Temple literally from MILES away...]
12 But… BUT… [what’s the CURE for monotonous, empty, ritualistic religion?] when Christ[b] had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God… For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.”” (Heb 10:11-14)
JESUS is the cure for monotonous worship! NOT, as I thought when I prayed the Sinner’s Prayer when I was 8 years old, because you can just pray this magic prayer and then never have to THINK about Him anymore. But because when you really come to understand who Jesus is and what He’s done for you, you could spend all day EVERY day thinking about Him, worshipping Him and STILL not even come CLOSE to exhausting the attention and the praise that we owe Him! When you realize that by a SINGLE offering he has PERFECTED you, for ALL time - ALL your sins, past, present and future - ATONED for, instantly, the moment you repent and turn to him in faith; you are now an adopted, beloved, guiltless, FREE child of God! How COULD our love for Him grow boring and cold?! How COULD our worship grow tired and stale?! I ought to be able to read the same Bible every DAY, every YEAR - God willing, I wanna read through the Bible EVERY year, for the rest of my life… and NEVER grow tired of it. May God give me that kind of HUNGER, and THIRST, for His eternal word. I pray that God gives YOU that passionate love for Him as well, friends. We don’t want to be like the church in Ephesus, from Revelation ch.2, my life group’s reading through Revelation right now. The Ephesians “abandoned the love they had at first”, for the Lord (2:4). Their love grows cold. We don’t want to BE like the Laodiceans of ch.3: who are “neither cold nor hot,” so they get SPIT out of Christ’s mouth. May we be on fire for the Lord. May we NEVER tire of the gospel, and of proclaiming it for all the world to hear.
Lastly, and briefly, #3 - We can find JOY in the mundane, even as we await God’s MAKING ALL THINGS NEW.
Ultimately, even Solomon, in his existential angst, concludes in Ecclesiastes 9:10 “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.”
If you’re gonna die anyway, you might as well make this life count!
The New Testament is a little more hope-filled: Colossians 3:23-24 “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.”
Paul goes so far as to say “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:31) Apparently it’s even possible to glorify God - or NOT - in the way you eat and DRINK!
I plugged this book a while back, but it’s still worth picking up: “Every Moment Holy”. It includes devotional reflections, liturgies, to meditate on while you’re doing the laundry. While you’re cooking. Cleaning. TWO of them specifically devoted to changing diapers!
But here’s the thing, friends: Jesus was born in a very ordinary stable.
He grew up in a very ordinary town, so ordinary it actually prevented some folks from believing the MESSIAH could have possibly grown up in Nazareth.
He worked a very ordinary job as a carpenter for MOST of his life.
He even LOOKED ordinary; Isaiah says “he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him”
Jesus was just an AVERAGE-looking dude. I like to think he was BALD. Hey - the Bible never says he had luscious, flowing locks!
And YET, Jesus was JOY incarnated. He was the perfect embodiment of joy. And if you and I find OUR joy, in OUR circumstances, in our surroundings, our upbringing, our repetitive, monotonous occupations, our tired, aging appearance, our joy will be fleeting indeed. But if our JOY is in the LORD; if HIS joy is our strength - Nehemiah 8:10 - then Jesus’ promise from John 15:11 can be ours: that “my joy will be in you, and your joy will be full.”
Even, as we wearily await, with impatient dissatisfaction, Christ’s RETURN, to make all things new. That’s His ULTIMATE promise to us - Isaiah 43, Revelation 21; I’ll let you go read those for yourself. But you can take heart, brothers and sisters, even in the here and now, in the waiting, the longing, for final redemption, because God hasn’t left us alone; for all who are in Christ, we have been SEALED with His Holy Spirit, “the guarantee[d] of our inheritance until we acquire FULL possession of it”, Ephesians 1:14. And speaking of breaking the monotony, don’t forget that when he DID that, when Christ sealed you and saved you, he declared you a “NEW creation”; if you’re tired of the same old, same old, just remember today God’s promise over YOUR life that the old has GONE; behold, the NEW has come (2 Corinthians 5:17). And God is continuing to change you, from one degree of glory to the next, each and every day, making you even MORE new, sanctifying you, for YOUR good, and HIS OWN glory. To the praise of God the Father.
Amen. Let’s pray...