The Joy Challenge: Sunday March 16th 2014

Today has been a slight struggle to be joyful at times. Life seems to conspire against a determination to rejoice. But I remember that this is a discipline of celebration not a do it when you feel like celebration. And so...praise God for sunshine. Seriously. It is good. Very good. For friends and fellowship, for Sam's chocolate pudding, for Lizzie's goat impersonation, for making a 3D human freeze frame of Pompeii mid-eruption with a bunch of teenagers, for Bethany getting to grips with the cross, for me getting to grips with the cross, for Jesus dying for me, for him becoming sin for me, for him beating death for me, for him taking my place so that I could become the righteousness of God. Come on, Soul, bless the Lord. Forget not his benefits.