More joy than we realise!

I recently watched a film called 'Hector and the Search for Happiness' (as recommended by my amazing Mum and made possible by the fact that my boyfriend left his Netflix account logged in on my laptop!) In the film, Hector travels the world asking people whether they're happy and recording his findings about how people can be happy. He discovers things like 

'Happiness is feeling truly alive' 

'Making comparisons can spoil your happiness'

'Happiness is being loved for who you are'.

'Sweet potato stew!' 

Happiness and joy have been things I've been thinking about a lot lately. There seem to be so many people in the world, and even just among the group of people I spend time with, who seem to struggle to find it. Hey, I I think we all do sometimes, and that's okay! But read on...

Another of Hector's observations was;

'Avoiding unhappiness is not the road to happiness.'

I really think our friend Hector might be on to something here. When I think about times I've been most happy, it hasn't been when I've set out to be happy, or to avoid being sad - it's just been a natural product of whatever situation I've been in. Times when I go out to spend time with a friend and we end up creasing up at stories we share, or I set out to help someone out and then enjoy a brilliant conversation with them, or I set my mind to achieving something new and as a result I find joy in the things I learn and the sense of accomplishment. These things might also bring us struggles, disappointments and trouble, but they are also much more likely to bring us joy than simply setting out to 'be happy' and I think we need to appreciate that more! Authentic joy can't be planned and created... but it can be experienced. 

A friend of mine recently gave me a Christian Aid Collective booklet, and in the front page it has this quote...

'All around you, people will be tiptoeing through life, just to arrive at death safely. But dear children, do not tiptoe. Run, hop, skip or dance, just don't tiptoe.'

Shane Claiborne

What if we stopped worrying so much about things that might be difficult and instead started to look around us and appreciate the things that bring us joy and make us happy right now? There will always be struggles in life, but if we focus on them, we'll miss the joy! What if we spent more time talking about and appreciating the things that make us happy than the things that make us sad? I expect there might just be more joy in life than we realise :)

The best job in the world

A Facebook friend recently posted a quote from Pete Greig on Facebook which said "I think that being a youth worker is one of the hardest, most important and most undervalued jobs in the country."

In many ways, I absolutely agree. I know so many youth workers who are so often under-appreciated and misunderstood. It's one of those jobs that involves a lot more than what most people see... 

My friends probably think I spend all my time making a fool of myself, dressing up with pants on my head and chasing young people around. My young people probably think I spend all my time reading my Bible (either that or sleeping at the church the same way kids assume their teachers live at school!). I can imagine there are those who assume I spend all my time chilling out and occasionally leading a youth group in the evening. I like to think I spend all my time having life changing conversations with young people and leading them to God, but I'm all too aware of the truth, which is that often, the majority of my time is taken up with paperwork and meetings!

It would be easy to write a blog arguing the case for over-worked and undervalued youth workers, but I don't want to do that... because this evening I've just come back from a youth group where I had the chance to share the gospel with my young people and to see them respond. I got to work with a fantastic team of servant hearted volunteers and to spend my evening with a bunch of young people who make me laugh and celebrate life!

Youth work is hard, but it's fantastic. I love the variety and the challenge in seeing a need, having an idea, and doing everything necessary to make it happen. I love the process of walking alongside a young person as they journey through life. I love getting to watch God change people's lives. I love the variety of serious and ridiculous - I might be working at a computer in the morning, but come evening I'll be wearing a pair of tights on my head with a tennis ball in the end, trying to knock over a bottle before my opponent beats me to it! 

I might work weird and irregular hours and do a whole load of behind the scenes often unappreciated work, (and I might regret writing this in a few days or weeks time!) but I really do think youth work is brilliant. I think young people are brilliant and I think loads of our volunteers are brilliant and I think God is brilliant and I'm so glad that I get to work with them all!

Do we need to stop working so hard?

I recently learnt (again!) an important lesson about rest. In the midst of life and study and ministry its so easy to just keep going and never take any time out. Too often I find myself climbing into bed at the end of the day having not stopped since I left the house in the morning... part of that is the nature of youth work as I do admin in the day and then have youth groups in the evenings at a time when any other sane person would be having time off... but part of it is my own lack of planning and, if I'm honest, pride.

Again and again I seem to have to learn the lesson that my value and worth is not found in how much work I can do or how well I can do it. That is for God's glory - not mine, because ultimately, he is the one enabling it all to happen.

Instead, my value and my worth is found in my status as a daughter of the King of Kings.

Nothing I can do or fail to do will ever change that.

So today I woke up a little earlier and instead of getting up and going straight to work, I went for a walk. For the first time in too long I actually took the time to look around and appreciate the little things that make me smile - the sound of birds singing or surprised smile on the face of the postman I said 'hi' to.

As I walked, I remembered the familiar words of Psalm 23, "The Lord is my Shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul."

Rest is a commandment and is something that God planned for us and wants for us. I'm glad he's reminded me of that and I hope we can all remember to stop every now and then and simply get some rest!

When did church become a once a week event?

When did church become something that we go to on a Sunday morning? 

It might seem like a ridiculous question to ask - I've been going to church almost every Sunday morning for the past 22 years. I've been to church in countries all around the world, in different languages, with different styles of music and varying qualities of teaching... but they're all relatively similar... and yet when I look at the Bible it doesn't really seem to fit with what I think a Biblical idea of 'church' looks like.

When I look to the Bible, my understanding of church is that its a community... but who ever heard of a community that 'happened' for two hours in a building once a week? What if we stopped understanding church as an event and started actively and intentionally doing life with the other Jesus followers in our communities? 

What if we shared meals together and painted houses together and went for walks together, and called that 'church'? 
If church is community, we need to be intentional about friendship in a time when individualism is taking over. We were made to be relational, but it seems to me as though many of us are forgetting what that looks like... sometimes we need to be brave enough to share our free time with other people. We need to invite people into our homes and share the simple things that we enjoy with other people, to create memories and build friendships.

What if we raised money together and adopted children together and visited the lonely together, and called that 'church'? 
The church is called to reach out into a hurting world. We're called to bring the love and light of Jesus to those who don't know him - so let's make this our 'normal' and lets make it something that we do together.

What if we studied the bible together and taught each other about what we've been learning, and called that 'church'? 
God loves and speaks to all of us... and it's not just with non-Christians that we should be sharing about Jesus. Some of the most powerful things that God has told me have been through other people. Sharing study and ideas and questions together should be something that is normal for us with our Christian friends.

What if we danced together and stood in awe of God's creation together and celebrated His goodness together, and called that 'church'?
We follow a God who is incredible and holy and worthy of our worship... and that doesn't have to just be through song on a Sunday morning. Let's go and see the world he's made and tell him how awesome it is, or celebrate and use the gifts that he's given us and give him the glory... let's get creative with the ways that we worship and glorify God.

What if we laughed together and cried together and shared our frustrations with each other and tried to support each other, and called that 'church'?
The bible teaches that the church is a family... that means we look out for each other. It means we hold our brothers and sisters when they're crying. It means we do whatever we can to help and to make life better. It means we listen to each other and help to carry one another's burdens.

I don't know about you... but church to me is so much more than an event on a Sunday and it includes so many more people that the others who I meet with on a Sunday morning. Church is the community of Jesus followers that God has put around me who I love doing all sorts of different things in life with. We share normality and service and study and worship and struggles and successes and so many other things, and we do it all day, on every day of the week... Including Sunday morning!