Joy! What a joy it was to walk back into our house after a week in Hong Kong and see the posters on the wall, "Welcome Home Dad", "Jalen loves Dad", "Kaya loves Dad", "Mom loves Dad". What a joy it is to have a family that loves and supports that work that we together do.
As Janna and I shared stories of the past week one topic continued to come up and that is the topic of Joy. Listening to the speakers at the conference and realizing that we need that Joy in our lives that comes through Christ and knowing that we are Christians that already have our future mapped out for us. How do we live with the Joy that Paul talks about in 1 Thes?? Rejoice always! you have got to be kidding me. Well that must have been written by a man who did not have any trials in his life. After a quick look through Acts you realize that wait a minute Paul had lots of trials and yet he writes be joyful. As I talked to Janna about this topic she too shared that she had been wrestling with the same thing. Joy is something that should come from inside, it should not be something that we struggle to achieve. If God is the center and is truly in control then we have much to be joyful about. This is something that we are now working through, how do we have joy in the challenging times?
I am now home and working once again. I am extremely glad to be home and glad that our family is "normal" again after 3 weeks. I put the word normal in quotations marks because I do not want to have a "normal" family, I want us to be the most abnormal, loving, on fire for God family that we can be. One of the presenters used the words "misfits for Christ". Well that is where we are at this week, continuing to stuggle, but loving, the biblical truths which we try to make applicable in our lives. Lets show people that Christians are the most joyful people because Christ died for us and the Holy Spirit lives in us!!!
Darren Back Home in Papua OUT
