If someone told you a fist-sized gem worth $3 billion was hidden in a trash heap, would you look for it? Would you seek to find that valuable treasure in the middle of all the smelly paper, discarded bottles and rotten food?  You might think, “You bet! I gonna invest in a hazmat suit and start looking!”

What is the gem?  What is the protective Hazmat suit? Just a sec. and we will get to that.

Ok, you’ve probably guessed that joy is the gem. God gives us promises. Joy is one of them. Joy can be unexpected in how it comes. Of course, you can’t really put a price on Joy and $3 Billion is way to low for the value joy holds. God promises to exchange our times of mourning with joy. And ironically enough, we were the joy set before Jesus on the cross; knowing through His sacrifice, our connection with the Father would be re-established.  Now, that statement/revelation does kind of mess with us!

Joy is one of the fruit of the Spirit.  It is something everyone is looking for and is often recategorized on a much lighter scale as “happiness” by most of the world.  But, to understand the deeper joy we have in the Lord takes time to uncover and discover. Joy never actually leaves, but can be hard to recognize in those more difficult seasons of life.

In The Warrior Commission, we have a culture that encourages joy. We find ways to find that $3 Billion gem in our lives. It’s not a fake joy that we manufacture, it’s actually part of what we open up as we apply the training we have to real life situations.  In other words, through our training we have developed some pretty stellar hazmats suits that can be tailor made and assist you when your life seems in the pits!

In the ups of life, joy is pretty easy to find.  It comes out in hope and excitement and a zest for life. Joy is included in the anticipation of learning more of God’s heart, our strength in Him and gathering the Kingdom treasure that’s available in all our situations. Who doesn’t want some of that?

What about the hard, down seasons of life?  We know God tells us joy is our strength. Yet, challenging times can seem anything but joyous. They seem like a grind, pressure, frustration filled, trash heap that stink-eth much!   But the fastest way to locate our joy is to take our training for a spin. As we consider how we see things, how we view God, go back through the God promises that have happened and seek God’s perspective on the situation, it’s like we put on a Hazmat suit, have a special, heaven created gem locater and go straight to where that gem is hiding.

It may still take a bit of process to remove the stuff around it, but joy is there, waiting.  It’s just a short matter of time before we hold the gem of joy in our hands once again and leave the trash heap of that challenging season far behind.

Christine

More about Christine, Executive Director of The Warrior Commission (TWC):

“God is my passion. TWC is my tribe. My life is an amazing adventure as I explore possibilities and dream with God. I am a wife and best friend to John (25 years), mom to my college-aged kids, friend, mentor, teacher/trainer, business owner, speaker, strategist, pioneer and native Texan. I love visiting with Father, Son and Holy Spirit to discover His heart for all we discuss. I love the process of growth and have great expectation for who each of us is becoming. My favorite thing is a problem, whether it is my own or someone else’s, because I love to discover the promise and provision God has waiting! To find our more about Christine or to see about her coming to your meeting or event, click here. 

For more about The Warrior Commission, click here.