No Bad Days

As I rode in my car on the way to Louisville today, I was in a fantastic mood. As in, one of those irrationally good moods. Music was blaring, I was dancing, the sunroof was down, the skies were clear, my smoothie was refreshing and temperatures were up from the past few days. As one of my friends loves to say, “things were going my way.” Even when the gas pump wouldn’t work quite right, and when the clouds rolled in, and when traffic began to back up, I was not to be deterred, as my mantra over the past few days has been “No Bad Days.” 

 I don’t mean that in the obnoxious “happy Christian” sentiment, where many of my brothers and sisters seem to believe that the only way to be a good witness is to always have a smile on your face and not let the world see you down. They might even say that a person that isn’t happy isn’t close to God. I would, only somewhat respectfully, disagree. David wrote some pretty sad psalms to be a “happy Christian,” and they called him the “man after God’s own heart.” Paul wept for his nation, Nehemiah pulled his beard out in sorrow and Jesus Himself wept. If Jesus weeps, then he’s either a bad Christian or it’s ok for Christians to have an emotion beyond “happy.”

Instead, we pursue joy and contentment. We don’t always have to be a little ray of bubbling sunshine, like I was this morning. Instead, when I say “No Bad Days,” I mean that I am seeking to find some sort of positivity, some kind of trace of my good God and loving Savior's grace in the midst of even the worst days. Philippians 3-4 preaches a message of contentment and the pursuit of joy. This is the Christian's goal.

A particular Scripture of meditation on this topic is Philippians 4:13, which has become a real foothold in my walk with Jesus. A few years ago, when mom had cancer, the fourth chapter of Philippians became a real lifesaver for me. I repeated turned back to this chapter of God’s Word for encouragement during that time, and it gave me a much truer appreciation of this famous verse. So many people assume that this verse is all about pulling ourselves up from our bootstraps and becoming all we can be, either in the office or on the football field (sorry Tim Tebow). However, this could not be further from the truth.

Rather, Philippians 4:13 is the culmination of these two chapters of encouragement from Paul to what could have been his most beloved of church plants. The previous thirteen verses in chapter four, specifically, all speak of putting aside worry and praying, all in the name of fostering a deeper trust in Him, not in us. When the storms of life hit us (see Matthew 7:24-27), we need a solid foundation. We get our content and peace and security from others (Philippians 4:10) and from learning how to deal with stuff (v.11-12), but it is ultimately (even in those three verses) the Gospel of Jesus Christ that gives us a foothold when life tries to sweep us away in the currents of strife and hardship.

So, with all of this said, let's have No Bad Days. Not in a ridiculous, unbiblical manner that ignores the pains in our lives. We will certainly have some very rough, painful, cripplingly-awful days. However, let's not lose track of Him in the darkness. Don't get so focused on the water swelling around you that you forget who your Savior is. When Peter saw Jesus walking on the water, he called out to Him, asking if he could walk out to Jesus. When he actually hopped out of the boat and began towards Him, though, Peter realized that the waters were thrashing about him and that if he fell in, he'd probably die. So he lost track of what was in front of him (Jesus) and instead was swallowed up by the seas. Don't be swallowed up. Instead, look for Jesus in even the most violent of waters. He's there; walk towards Him.

Our Silence Makes No Sense

"Then He touched their eyes, saying, 'Let it be done for you according to your faith!' And their eyes were opened. Then Jesus warned them sternly, 'Be sure that no one finds out!' But they went out and spread the news about Him throughout that whole area." -Matthew 9:29-31, HCSB

So, one day Jesus was walking around when a pair of blind guys walk up to Him, wanting to be healed. They had heard, no doubt, of His healing abilities. Perhaps they even heard that He had healed other blind people. Regardless, they walked up behind Him and yelled for Jesus to have mercy on them.

His response? "Do you believe that I can do this?"

Their answer: "yes."

A repeating theme in the Gospels is faith. Almost anytime that Jesus healed someone, it was a result of their having faith in Him to do what they believed He could do. And really, the same should be true for Christians.

We were once blind when Jesus, by grace through faith, opened our eyes to Him and our salvation in Him. When we are awakened from our sin-induced death and brought into the new birth in Christ, we are healed by Him, like the blind men here, "according to our faith." With that, our eyes are opened.

 For both us and the blind men, Jesus made a command and that command was/is disobeyed. And that's when the similarities disappear.

In the case of the blind men, Jesus told them not tell anyone of what He had done for them, as the time had not come for His awesomeness to be revealed. Yet, overcome with gratefulness and excitement, these men could not keep the news of their Healer to themselves. They felt an overpowering compulsion to share about Jesus with everyone that they came in contact with.

Inversely, Jesus has commanded us to "go, therefore, and make disciples," telling them all about Him and what He has done for us. Yet, we respond in the exact opposite fashion of the blind men. We hold in the news of Christ to ourselves.

Imagine if the blind men were healed, and then ran to an entire group of blind men and women. Upon their arrival at the group, they then proceed to act as though they are blind and refrain from telling anyone how they gained their sight. They have the same mannerisms, actions, words and everything that they had when they were blind. It wouldn't make sense!

And yet, this is us. We are healed of our spiritual blindness, and yet continue on in our lives as though we are still blind, keeping the news of our healing to ourselves.

It must not be this way. We must run to any and all the people that we know, proclaiming the name of Jesus! He has healed us; are we not filled with joy at this truth?! Are we content with our healing so much so that we ignore the blindness of others?!

We have had our eyes opened. It is now our job to do the same with our mouths.