A few weeks back, I decided to pick up a few of the little tracts for sale around the bookstore. One of them was Joel's "Living the Joy-filled Life." I've only just now gotten around to perusing them - there's just something about me that refuses to accept anything under 150 pages as worthwhile reading, so I'm not sure how to explain the sudden curiosity. Anyways, the first step mentioned was "slow down" ... in other words, don't miss the joy of today in living for tomorrow. Two things from this jumped out at me:

Maybe you're living in anticipation of a big moment that you believe will make all the difference for you. Let me encourage you to not be deceived by the hope of mighty exploits. Start enjoying every single day of your life right now. It's certainly great to dream big dreams ... to have big goals. But most of life is very routine, and there is joy in the routine! The psalmist said it this way: "This is the day the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it." (Psalm 118:24)

Rejoice today - not tomorrow! Now - not later!

Remember, there will always be another dream to dream. If all your dreams were to come true today, God would soon birth a new dream, a new vision, for you to pursue. That's the way He is. And the sooner we learn to slow down and enjoy every single day of life - whether it's sunny or rainy, exciting or boring, stretching or satisfying - the more satisfied and fulfilled we will be.

That more or less runs counter to what I think is a common stereotype of Joel's ministry - that we're all sitting around just praying to get rich here at Lakewood, and that if we just believe hard enough, we will be rich. In fact, one of my favorite sermons that I continually replay is "Staying on the Potter's Wheel." The central point of it was to realize that we have a purpose for being in whatever situation it is - good or bad. And it's up to us to realize that God is working on us in those difficult times. If we allow the tough times to defeat us, they don't merely affect us in those situations. They have a way of taking away from us the positive, uplifting times as well.

The other item that sticks with me from this portion of the booklet has to do with the material we've been covering in Compass Class on single life.

Maybe you're single today and praying for God to bring the right person into your life. That's great! I encourage you to continue to pray, believing for God's best. but as you do, let me challenge you to enjoy every moment of your single life. This time will not come again. The same thing is true if you are a married couple longinf ro children, or a man or woman working two jobs to make ends meet. Don't get so caught up in the hopes of tomorrow that you forget to enjoy today!

That's pretty close to the message Tony Evans has in his book, in fact. Enjoy what you do have, rather than worrying & bemoaning what you don't have. Not a whole lot to expand on this one, but I just had to marvel at the distillation of the point that we've been spending a good deal of time on in Compass Classes.

Speaking of which, I happened to take in another rare Sunday Compass Class this past weekend. It's always interesting to see how the other half lives. They seemed to be covering the same topic we were, just not based on the same book selection (in fact, Doyle didn't reference a particular book, so I'm guessing they may not have used one at all). Still, Doyle's a great teacher and as dog-tired as I was about that time Sunday, there's no way I could be found dozing off as Doyle worked the crowd. Next week, it's back to my more familiar Saturday night group, though. I'm suddenly reminded that a week without is too long.