Monthly Archives: January 2007

Count Your Blessings #94 – Happiness

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Who's eaten all the crepesI’ve had a song going around my head over the last few days, it goes like this:

Happiness, happiness, the greatest gift that I posses.
I thank the Lord I’ve been blessed.
With more than my share of happiness.

It’s a song from my childhood that is still being sung by Ken Dodd. I was surprised to find out that it was in the charts before I was even born. This song is one of those that once you get it put in your brain it just goes around and around. If you would like the full lyrics they are here.

One of my favourite blogs comes from the self styled Chief Happiness Officer. I particularly like the Monday Tips which give some really creative ideas for making your work environment a happier place.

Happiness has actually been a really big thing recently with articles in the BBC and the film The Pursuit of Happyness.

So does the Bible have anything to say about Happiness? Christians are often characterised as people who are against everything and lacking in joy.

Actually the Bible has loads to say about being happy and encourages it time and time again. Here’s just one of them:

I bless God every chance I get; my lungs expand with his praise. 
I live and breathe God;
   if things aren’t going well, hear this and be happy: 
Join me in spreading the news;
   together let’s get the word out. 
God met me more than halfway,
   he freed me from my anxious fears. 
Look at him; give him your warmest smile.
   Never hide your feelings from him.

Psalm 34

One of the things that struck me hard about my frustrations post was that frustration is a state of mind. I can chose to be frustrated, and I can choose to not be frustrated. I can choose to live in frustration and I can choose to live in happiness but if my choice is going to be real it needs to be expressed. It’s no good sitting saying to myself that this frustrating situation is making me happy. I need to interact with the situation to stop it being frustrating and for it to become fulfilling. Sometime the correct expression is to leave, more often that expression is to interact with the situation and either change myself or change the situation.

So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can.

Ecclesiastes 3:12

Count Your Blessings #93 – Frustrations

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Tarn HowesI’m writing this post through gritted teeth because I’m writing about something I desperately want to be true.

I want frustrations to be a blessing. I want to be able to look at each frustration as an “opportunity to learn”. I want to be able to look back at frustrating situation and see how I have grown through them.

But most of the time frustrations are just that, frustrations.

Let me give you some examples of what I am talking about:

The other week Sue and I went to do our “Big Shop”. It’s something we do once a month, we take two trollies around one of the local stores and fill up on all of those things that we know we will need and won’t perish, toilet roll, cereal, shampoo, etc. We find it’s a great way of controlling our finances.

We undertake this adventure on pay day, which for me is in the middle of the month.

In December we decided to do this on our own while the children were out doing other things. We’ve done this a few times, we knew how long it would take, and we knew how much time we had, so no problems.

No problems until we arrived at the check-out.

We were lulled into a false sense of security because there were no queue even though it was getting close to Christmas. Unfortunately there didn’t need to be any queues, the check-out assistant made sure that all of our time was taken. Bip…

I don’t know exactly how long she took, but it felt like she was averaging a piece of merchandise every 10 seconds. Bip…

It wasn’t just that she was slow, she also insisted on talking to her colleague on the next check-out who had nothing better to do. Like many people our delightful check-out assistant was completely incapable of bipping and talking at the same time. Bip…

“What are you doing for Christmas Mavis.” Bip…

By this time an explosion was going off in my head, “Does this woman not realise that we are the customer here! We are the ones that pay her wages!” Bip…

“Does she not see that we have two trollies that are FULL!!!” Bip…

Sue huffs to make her feelings felt and receives the look of the daggers, but still she proceeds as a pace that a snail would have found dull. Bip…

“Does this woman thing we enjoy being in this store!” Bip…

The explosion in my head is turning into a volcano. Bip…

“Does this woman think we have nothing better to do!” Bip…

Frustration, frustration, frustration. Bip…

I would love to be able to say that my thoughts were completely different. I’d love to be able to say that I stood there and thought about that ladies life and how terribly boring her job must be. I’d love to be able to say that I had compassion on her and showed it by some random act of kindness.

But no, frustration, frustration, frustration.

Did my frustration impact the check-out assistant – no, not one tiny little bit.

Did my frustration impact me – most definitely. I’ve been carrying it around for weeks, along with all sorts of other frustrations. It’s now January 2007 and I’m still talking about something that happened in a different year.

Frustration says much more about me than the situation. They are only frustration because I choose to allow them to become frustrations.

Frustrations should be a blessing.

I’m tempted to start writing a few “Frustration” posts, taking a situation apart and looking at why something is frustrating and how a different approach would create a different result. I’m worried if I did, though, that I’d spend my life looking for frustrations to write about. I have enough frustrations without going and looking for them. What do you think? Do you think it could be therapeutic?

I’ll finish with some words of Jesus:

“You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.

“You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.

“You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are—no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.

“You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. He’s food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat.

“You’re blessed when you care. At the moment of being ‘care-full,’ you find yourselves cared for.

“You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.

“You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family.

“You’re blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s kingdom.

“Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don’t like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.”

Matthew 5

Count Your Blessings #92 – Law and Order

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Rydal CavesIt’s easy to focus on all of the lawlessness and disorder in the UK. All of you have to do is go to the BBC’s UK News pages and you get enough information to believe that things are terrible.

Last night I read the story of John Dau in this months National Geographic. John is one of the “Lost Boys of Sudan”.

I found myself reading the article quite matter-of-factly, it was only at the end that I realised what I had read. Right the way through this piece are details of lawlessness and disorder that I can’t even imagine. Sections like this one:

At dawn we met a woman and her two girls from our village, and we joined them, heading east toward Ethiopia, where we thought we would be safe. My knees were scraped from falling as we ran, my feet were bloody, and I was naked, because I had left the village that way. None of us had taken anything as we fled. No food, no cooking pots. We ate almost nothing—wild roots, a pumpkin from a farmer’s field. At night the mosquitoes would torment us as we tried to sleep.

Then, one day, a group of militia ambushed us. The men grabbed Abraham, forced him to the ground, and began beating him with a stick, telling him to give them money. He had no money, so they took his shirt and left him in the dirt, his back bloody. I felt lucky, because they had not killed Abraham. I do not know why they let him live.

We kept going, now heading southeast to avoid the militia, but on the seventh day, we ran into another militia. Again, they beat Abraham, and this time they beat me, too, over and over on the head with a stick. While they were beating us, they abducted the woman and girls. That was the last time we saw them.

Or like this one:

When we got to Gilo River, it was very full and strong, and we could see crocodiles waiting away from shore. We were gathered there on the riverbank when suddenly Ethiopian rebels attacked, firing on us. I dived into the river and began swimming as hard as I could. Another boy dived almost on top of me, but he could not swim well, and he clutched at me. I tried to help him, but I didn’t have the strength, and the river was forcing us both under. I had to leave him. Somehow, I made it to the other side. We lost about 9,000 boys and a few men that day on the Gilo River. But 18,000 of us, mostly Dinka boys, had made it back to our homeland.

The whole article is full of sections like this; stories of humanities inhumanity.

I am very thankful that this is not the reality in which I live. I am thankful that, for the most part, I live somewhere where there is law and order.