I refuse to be miserable

Sunday, September 1, 2013

Let's get the official business out of the way first. A pinch and a punch for the first of the month and no returns of any kinds. Yeah, I'm real mature!

Anyway, today I had one of those moments where even I had to stop and think to myself, "Did that wisdom really just come out of my own mouth?" Yes, yes it did. I even had to write it down and will surely be telling it to myself for years to come and tonight, I want to share this rare moment with all of you.

I was in the city today picking up my phone because on Friday night, I dropped it and some nice and honest man named Bob picked it up and arranged for me to get it back today. I could write a whole blog on the importance of honesty, but I shall save that idea for another time. Anyway, just after Bob returned my phone to me, I was early to meet my friend Brian and so I was just sitting there people-watching and one person asked why was I smiling, that something significantly awesome must have happened. I said that no, nothing has really happened to make me smile and that I am actually dealing with a lot of stuff right now, but that I refuse to be miserable today and am making a deliberate choice to smile. It is a very hard thing to do and I admit I don't succeed at doing that anywhere near as much as I would like, especially lately, but it is such a liberating thing to do. It takes a lot of strength to smile when everything inside of you just wants to cry, but you will feel so much better for it.

Today is Father's Day in Australia and for those that don't know, I've grown up without my father around for a whole bunch of reasons. It did impact me a lot as a young boy and even into adulthood. However, over the last few years, God has healed that part of me. He has blessed me with several men who love Jesus, are wise, strong and encouraging men and I can honestly say they're like fathers to me. God has even made me a youth leader where I can help teenage boys deal with the same issues I went through, particularly in the area of a lack of a father. Now that just blows my mind when I think about that. This is just one reason why it's significant to me personally that I was choosing to smile today. Anyone who knows me well would probably forgive me for staying in my room and being miserable today, but I refused. I reached out to a friend and my day was great.

So, as hard as it is, make a deliberate choice to refuse to be miserable this week. Yes, life may punch us in the face and even make us question a bunch of things at times and there is nothing wrong with that, but don't stay down. Get back up, dust yourself off, keep going and smile because Jesus loves you.