I’ve Got the Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy…

Posted by simpleysterling on Mar 25, 2010 | 6 comments

This is my “depressed stance.”  When you’re depressed, it makes a lot of difference how you stand.  The worst thing you can do is straighten up and hold your head high because then you’ll start to feel better.  If you’re going to get any joy out of being depressed, you’ve got to stand like this.  ~Charlie Brown

Have you ever spent any time at all around someone who simply refuses to take joy in – well, in practically anything? It seems like people who have that attitude just seem to always find the dark corner of the room.  If the sign is shining, they want rain; if it is fall, they can’t wait for winter; if you are having fun, they are miserable.  Their whole life is defined by the negative attitude they project.  And when someone like that enters a room, it is like all the air immediately leaves.  In very high tech terms, folks, these people are the “Joy Suckers”.

 I have to wonder why someone would choose to be that way.  Why would someone consistently choose to dwell on the negative instead of seeking out the positive?   Their response would be something akin to (say with me in Eeyore’s voice), “I don’t know.  I think God just must’ve made me this way.  I know you don’t like me… oh, bother.”  As the Rolling Stones would put it, they just take everything in life and “Paint it Black”.  By claiming that they have no culpability in their decisions, they are taking their “Joy Suckability” to entirely new heights, and claim it as a birthright, as a gift if you will, rather than trying to do anything to change. 

But change is possible for anyone who really seeks it, who really desires it, and who really works toward a goal.  James 1:2 tells us to “Consider it pure joy my brother, when you face trials of many kinds…” Whoa Nelly, stop the bus! When we face trials of many kinds…Really? When we face trials… Not if, when. So we are all going to fall on hard times, we are all going to have those Eeyore days, and we are all going to experience depressed feelings in one form or another.  But our attitudes, even though they may take some careful nurturing and creative cultivation, are our own, and it is up to us to adopt a positive outlook.  And if you truly want to change, seek God and He will be the change in you.  He tells us, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:13)   Be transformed, my brothas and sistas!   So “…Straighten up and hold your head high because then you’ll start to feel better…” Chuck Brown

 Catch you on the flip side!

Ang

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