Greetings Brothers,

Thank you for your patience, I have been in transition to go from the night life to days again for only a brief time. This will allow me to be alert for my interviews rather than hyped up on caffeine. During this time I have been preparing for the grand events. Two interviews in one day. As the ole’ saying goes, when it rains… it pours. Most importantly, however, no matter the outcome of the interviews, as long as I am serving God as He sees fit, then I am happy to do His will.

This sounds almost conflicting – to be happy to have an interview and to be content no matter the outcome. Can you imagine the conversation with a friend, “So Mark, how did the interview go?” I would reply, “Great! I thought I nailed it!”. My friend would then ask, “Did you get an offer?” And I would respond, “Nope, but it was definitely a learning experience. I’ll be ready for the next one.”  What is that all about? Being happy when you didn’t get what you thought you had?

Well, to be honest, I’ve been there and done that. I tired of being tired and complaining about the things I thought I was going to get or “deserved” to get because of my efforts. And in Philippians chapter 2, Paul writes about this very thing. Serving God with Joy no matter what the outcome (key word here is joy).

We talked about how Paul is writing this letter in Prision. Does he deserve to be in prison after all his hard work serving God? Probably not. But does this letter sound like he is complaining at all. Absolutely not! He says in verse 14,” Do everything without complaining or arguing”, and if anyone has the right to talk the talk, it’s Paul. At a key point in Paul’s life, he had the grandest experience to put him in this frame of mind. Jesus himself spoke to him and gave him purpose. Gave him hope. And during this transformation from murdering lives to saving lives, he experienced for a brief time what it was like to be in the presence of God. The brief “tasting and seeing the goodness of the Lord” is what I believe is the driving force for him to completely understand that there are things much greater than himself and that God is in “total” control. He understands that no matter what he does in this life and no matter what happens to him in this life, it is nothing compared to what he longs to re-experience as he looks forward to being in the presence of God.

So for him to be in a prison and still express joy, speaks volumes for what he longs for. Not only is he excited to be with Christ, but he is doing everything in his power to share this joy with others before his time is up. Paul continues to write after verse 14, “… so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe”.

This point in time in our life seems to be very dark and gloomy. The economy is bad, people are living in fear for losing their jobs, and the list can go on. So as Christians, as servants of God, we have an opportunity, we have the “duty” to be like shining start in this dark universe. So when people see your joy, a joy we know personally will last an eternity, they can ask why, or for that matter, how you can be so happy when life is so crappy. This opens the door for you to share that joy with them. To develop friendships and like Paul did with Timothy and Epaphroditus. Joy can spread just as easily as misery in this world. It’s up to us to understand that and share it with as many people as we can.

Now, does this mean we will never complain or grumble about something?  Probably not. Although I would like to think I can limit it more. Think of this. I know we cannot control what happens to us in our daily lives (sickness, loss of a job, death of a friend or family member, divorce, etc.), but we can control our attitudes. So when things happen in life that may not go our way, remember the BIGGER picture, what joy awaits for us in heaven, and that God is preparing us for something greater than we can ever anticipate and will complete the good work that He began in your life. That is the joy we need to embrace and share during these times. So I challenge all of us, me included, control your attitude the best you can, be the shining star in this dark world. And remember this, brothers, as you face your day:

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus
Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death–
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, 
to the glory of God the Father.
 Philippians 2: 5-11

EnJOY your day and week brothers, God Bless

Cheers,

Mark