Learning to be happy today instead of ‘someday’
God gives us a joy and rest we can access anytime, anywhere.
How many times have you asked a friend at school how she’s doing and she replied with something like this: “I’ll be fine as soon as this biology test is over.” Or “I’ll be happy once I’m done with this busy week.”
These responses probably occur more often than we’d like to admit — not only from our friends but from ourselves, too.
Balancing school, sports, a job, extracurriculars or any other commitments we may have can be extremely difficult in our achievement-oriented, success-obsessed world. In the midst of all the hustle of everyday life, it’s all too easy to get caught up in the mindset that our joy, rest and peace will arrive someday — just not today.
Somehow, that mystical day never arrives. It becomes a distant entity we can only squint at from afar because we’re too busy staring our current tasks in the face to see it up close.
To put it simply, we continue to wait for happiness. What’s worse, we continue to subconsciously assert the idea that our happiness is circumstantial.
Finding our non-contingent joy
If we look into God’s Word, however, it becomes clear He has different plans for us.
Psalm 118:24 reads, “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” God presents a joy for us that is void of conditions.
He doesn’t specify, “This is the day that you finish your English project; rejoice and be glad.” Nor does He say, “This is the weekend you’ve been waiting for, so rejoice and be glad.”
The Lord wants us to take joy in Him in every moment we have breath to breathe and life to live! God wants us to come to Him in the midst of our stress, our fatigue, our exhaustion. His grace allows us to shed our heavy burdens and “find rest for our souls” (Matthew 11:28-30).
Much like the joy God offers us, this rest is not contingent upon our own efforts or achievements. He gives us a joy and rest we can access anytime, anywhere. The only question that remains is this: Why have we failed to take advantage of it?
Seizing someday
A few years ago, I was reading a GoFundMe page for a young woman named Allie who was dealing with a progressive stage of bone cancer. In the description box she wrote: “My goal is not to be a cancer survivor. I want to be a victor, a conqueror. Surviving is not enough — I want to LIVE. I want to THRIVE.”
Allie’s words hit home with me. The Lord doesn’t want us to merely survive from day to day and week to week. He doesn’t want us to barely be hanging on.
He wants us to thrive. He wants us to seize the moment and grow in our love for Him amidst the chaos.
Christ calls us conquerors. Let’s take up our armor and start living and thriving for the Lord. Who knows, maybe that someday will turn out to be today.
How can you seize God’s promises today?
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Tori Agawa is an English and ESL teacher at a Christian school in Northern California. She has been married to her wonderful husband Jordan for a year. In her free time, she enjoys reading, running and a good coffee with friends.