Hung Up on Hang-ups!

Hung up on hang-ups! That's what I say! This is sad. It is hard to believe! This is just what I read in a (nameless for now) popular Christian magazine:

Americans who mentioned the enjoyment of their relationship with God

is their greatest source of spiritual fulfillment: 3%.

I checked out a few Barna statistics myself. I found out that in 2001, 77% of America's population considered themselves Christian. Only 7% of the adult population was considered evangelicals. 1 out of 5 born again, could meet evangelical criteria. In 2002, 54% of our population was protestant. In May of 2007, 71% considered themselves to be religious, and by 2008 that number had drifted below 70%. None of these statistics sound like the news of revival that we hear of in other lands. And then to read that only 3% of Americans mention the joy of their relationship with God as there greatest source of spiritual fulfillment?? Am I reading this wrong? What could their greatest source of spiritual fulfillment be? What can the enjoyment of spiritual fulfillment come from?

Even while I ask these questions, I am so thankful for my relationship with Jesus Christ. There is no greater enjoyment than Joy, Himself, living in, filling up, and running over you!

No! I do not live in Walgreens...the land of Perfect! The forceful power of our countries economical struggles has pounded down my door, plundered my cupboards, and stolen my purse daily now, for a season too long to define. My family and friends have suffered illness and abuse in ways that I never dreamed would come 'nigh' my house. I have literally had my feet knocked out from under me, but my Joy, the only way to spiritual fulfillment that I know, has never left me!

Perhaps the 97% of Americans who are getting their spiritual fulfillment from something other than the enjoyment of their relationship with God, simply don't know what enjoyment is.

You have to keep the main thing the main thing! The main thing about 'enjoyment' is keeping 'Joy' as its center. And it seems that their could be some confusion between joy and happiness. It is helpful to remember that happiness is based on what happens. Our circumstances make us happy. When all our bills are paid, on time, the phone stops ringing, we can shop (with cash) till we drop, and have some left over, the kids are well and busy elsewhere, and all is quiet and settled on the homefront...we are happy. Happiness may come and go. But, too often, we forget that joy is meant to stay, and that true joy comes deep from the center of the enjoyment we possess in our relationship with Jesus Christ.

Dr. Seuss said it quite well: "I'm sorry to say so but, sadly it's true, that bang-ups and hang-ups can happen to you."

Yes, spit and sickness happen. Plunder and poverty happen. In fact rain, sun, parties, prizes, broken bones and broken hearts, and summer romances and summer droughts all happen. Presidents, senate seats, jail-outs and bail-outs happen. The happenings in your life and the ones that touch your life, will joggle between the good, the bad and the ugly, and the number of belly laughs and countless giggles may be adjusted accordingly. But don't get hung up on hang-ups!

But your joy will never leave you, in spite of circumstance. In fact, He will rejoice over you with singing. (Zephaniah 3:17) He will rest on you. He will dwell in you. He will fill you up and overflow you! And His sufficiency is not limited or adjusted according to circumstance.

"Though the fig tree does not blossom,

nor fruit be on the vines,

the produce of the olive fail

and the fields yield no food,

the flock be cut off from the fold

and there be no herd in the stalls,

yet I will rejoice in the Lord,

I will joy in the God of my salvation.

God, the Lord, is my strength;

he makes my feet like hinds' feet,

he makes me tread upon my haigh places."

Habakkuk 3:17-19