The Arrival of Jesus – Humility, Courage, Gratitude, and Joy
In this episode, Daron discusses the arrival of Jesus as a bundle of joy and how it challenges our understanding of joy and peace. He emphasizes the importance of humbly embracing the arrival of Jesus in our lives, courageously accepting the challenges that come with it, graciously protecting the joy through gratitude, and faithfully completing the mission that God has for us.
Daron shares the story of Mary and Joseph and how they made the decision to welcome Jesus into their lives despite the difficulties they faced. He encourages listeners to embrace the joy of Jesus and trust in God’s plan for their lives.
Key Takeaways:
⚡️Embrace the arrival of Jesus in your life with humility and courage.
⚡️Protect the joy of the Lord through gratitude.
⚡️Trust in God’s plan and faithfully complete the mission He has for you.
Quotes:
- “Joy is not happiness. It’s the deep sense of peace and contentment that comes from knowing Jesus.”
- “Gratitude is the guardian of joy.”
- “It’s not joy that makes us grateful. It’s gratitude that makes us joyful.”
#advent #daronearlewine #joy
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VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
If you walked up to Mary today and said, mary, hey, was it worth it? Was it worth it to invite the joy of that bundle of little baby Jesus into your life? She would probably break down crying saying, yes, yes, I’d do it a gazillion times.
Tagline: Created on purpose and for purpose.
Joy to the world. My favorite scenes, just, I love them from Christmas vacation when they’re driving in the car in the beginning, right? Clark Griswold singing Joy to the world.
And then they start singing, oh, so good. Take it, Russ. How many good quotes are in Christmas vacation? The answer is all of them. You quote the whole freaking movie and you’d be happy about it. Hey, welcome back to Daron Earlewine podcast. Obviously, it’s a Christmas season. Look at the backdrop. If you don’t see the backdrop, it’s because you’ve not started watching the podcast on YouTube yet. That’s OK.
Listen, I don’t watch a lot of podcasts in my life. I listen to tons of them, right. But I have watched some, and I do feel like I get a stronger connection to the hosts and the guests when I watch them. If you’re watching on YouTube, you’re going to also see that I’ve added a snazzy jacket to this episode, right? Producer Coop keeps telling me, listen, you got to step the game up every week because it’s the Christmas season. You can’t come in here and just your regular black attire, right?
Last episode, I did have the black shirt on this episode. Boom. Add the black and gray checkered jacket. Check it out on YouTube. Just search my name. We have a channel. You can go check it out next week. Just want to give you a little preview. I think next week I’m going to bring. I’ve got this red velvet jacket. It just says Christmas, right? It says, I’m here to party, but yet I love Jesus. And so I’m going to be wearing that next week. If you want to check that one out, if you haven’t checked out the YouTube channel, go do it. And please subscribe.
We’re almost close. We’re right there. Close to a thousand subscribers. And something good happens when that happens. I think Coop told me. So please go check that out if you are. We’re talking about joy. That’s why I’m singing. That’s why I’m talking about all this. Welcome to the early Wine podcast. Christmas season, joy to the world. That’s what they say around the Christmas season. This episode is going to have a little bit of a same color hue. If you will as the last episode, because there are some things about the Christmas story, there are some things about Jesus arriving in our life that I think really do challenge the idea of joy and peace as we traditionally think about them. But there’s no doubt about it that the announcing of the arrival or the advent, the coming of Jesus, a lot of joy wrapped around that one. A lot of joy wrapped around that, right. There were shepherds living in their fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks. And angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.
But the angel said to them, do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all people. Today, in the town of David, a savior has been born to you. He is the messiah. The Lord this will be assigned to you will find a baby wrapped in cloths lying in a manger. Suddenly, a great company of heavenly hosts appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth, peace to those on whom his favor rests.
When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherd said to one another, let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about, undoubtedly, 100% the understanding that the good news that a savior, the messiah has been born is really good news. And obviously, all the angels, they knew it. They were singing, right? The heavenly hosts show up. Glory to God in the highest. Peace on earth. We’ve got joy. We’ve got peace with the arrival of Jesus.
And it is. It’s amazing. It’s wonderful. Looking back to, we talked about in the last episode, the idea that Jesus, that Jesus was the answer to the need for peace. He’s a person. He came to give his life that humanity could have peace with God and that would be able to be received and then brought out to become salt and light the earth, to actually see God’s kingdom come and his will be done on earth as it is in heaven. That’s the whole deal.
Joy. It’s an unbelievably happy, joyous, full of excitement thing that God has sent a savior to the world because the world needed, saved. Agreed. But in this, there are a couple of different things that are happening that I think are happening in our life all the time. So joy to the world, peace on earth, goodwill to men, all the stuff. Then there are these two human beings named Mary and Joseph, and they have to make a decision of whether they’re going to welcome this bundle of joy into their life.
Like, there are two people who are going to have a baby that’s actually a real baby now. It is fully God and fully man. That’s the miracle of Jesus, right? But he’s still going to be a baby. And yes, he’s sinless, but it’s still a baby. Jesus is going to arrive into their life in the midst of mass chaos, struggles, people trying to kill them. It’s nuts. And except for the be pregnant with God’s baby part, which is just what Mary did, I think we’re all faced with the same decisions day in and day out.
Will I actually receive the arrival of Jesus in my life today? And will I consider it joy when his arrival brings or invites me into situations that may not make me unbelievably comfortable or happy? Right? I do think it’s funny when we call babies bundles of joy, personally. Now, I know there are some people out there that you love, like those first six weeks of having a baby, if that’s your jam. I mean, there are people that I know, they think that’s amazing.
I also know there’s people out there that think they’re dogs, right? Might get in trouble for that quote. Here’s my deal. I don’t like babies for the first six weeks of babies, they’re not great. And I don’t think you can prove me wrong on this one. I heard comedians once say, right, that having a baby, a newborn baby, it’s like having a drunk person who doesn’t speak your language, and they’re usually angry in your house for six straight weeks. It’s the truth. It just is.
They can’t communicate. Their eyes don’t even work very well, right? They’re kind of crosshair. They can’t see you, they can’t speak your language, they’re never rational. They just scream and yell. They poop all over themselves, right? I mean, think about it. It’s like you’ve gone to a bar with somebody who is out of their mind, and that’s what you’re dealing with. And it’s not just like on a Friday night. This is six weeks. They’re never leaving your home.
Bundle of joy. And I get it. I’ve had three boys. I have three babies. My wife had the babies I helped. And then that’s a whole nother thing, like for the lady, right? You got to go through the whole birthing process, which that’s not about this podcast, but bundle of joy, it arrives in your life and it disrupts everything. You don’t go to sleep when you went to sleep before, right? You may not even sleep in the same room you slept in.
You’re not waking up when you used to wake up, you’re not going to the same places you used to go to. You sometimes aren’t even hanging out with the same people that you hung out with because sometimes the people that you’re hanging out with, if they’re have a bundle of joy yet, they’re like, we can’t hang out with you in your bundle of joy because we don’t really do bundle of joy type activities. We’re more non bundle of joy people.
And all of a sudden you’re like, well, I guess we should probably find some more bundle of joy people because our non bundle of joy people don’t understand them. All of these, if you’re going to where I’m going, which I’m sure you are, because you’re bright people, you listen to this podcast all the time. All of that applies to Jesus 100%, which is why I love the fact that Jesus arrived as a baby at Christmas to help us make sense of the fact that, yeah, you know what, Jesus Mary had to actually birth Jesus, but we all have the same decisions to make that she did.
Are we going to actually receive the gift and arrival of Jesus as a bundle of joy for our life? And in this, I think it’s important to look at the fact that I think at all times in life God is wanting to do something in you and something through you. So at any point that God’s leading you in your life, which he always is right in this process to become who you are born to be, to find your purpose in life, because you were made on purpose and for the purposes of God at all times, any bundle of joy coming into your life, God is doing something in you as well as wanting to do something through you.
And I haven’t thought about it deep enough to know if this is true. Let me see if this is true. As I outwardly process it, I think it’s true that if we reject either of them, we lose both of them. I think that would be true. If I say, you know what, God, I not really in for you doing something in me, I’m cool, I’ll partner with you and we’ll do something through my life, I’ll go make a difference somehow. But I don’t really want you dabbling in my character, my life, my past, like my stuff.
Well, you’re really not going to do something through, he’s not going to do something through you before he can do something in you. You can go do some nice things, but you’re not going to see God do what only God can do. And I think there are some people who say, you know what, God? I’m not really about my faith being something that other people know about, like, you just do something in me. But that’s for crazy christian people that go do stuff with you. Don’t really do anything through my life, just in my life now, the struggle there is, you’re not going to really have God do much in you, because God’s arrival into your life wasn’t to make you a phenomenal spiritual narcissist.
Right? The whole thing from the beginning with God and humanity was, I bless you to be a blessing. So I’m going to do something in you so we can do something through you. And if you want something to be done through you, you have to be able to allow God to be doing something inside of you. And so with Mary and Joseph and with, okay, that’s always happening. He’s doing something in us so he can do something through us.
And I think as we look at this, this is one of the things that starts to battle against our understanding of Jesus being joy in our life, of his arrival, bringing joy. And I think one of the first things it attacks is needs versus wants. Because I think when I say, like, yeah, you’re right, man. Daron, when Jesus showed up to Mary and Joseph, that wouldn’t have been very joyful. That had been just crazy.
And if Jesus shows up in my life and starts jacking up my stuff in my life, that, like, I’d be like, I’m out, bro. Like, no, thank. Like, he’s not giving me what I want. And I think a lot of times we think joy is happiness, right? So it’s like, joy to the world. The Lord has come. Jesus, make all my fun stuff come true. Like, whatever the song would be where we change the lyrics to basically is joy to me, is I get what I want, when I want, how I want, like, meet all my wants, God, how and when I want you to meet them.
Which then would be like, I’m not really interested in God coming into my life. I’m really looking for a cosmic genie type of butler where actually I’m God. This is actually a great deal. This would be a great deal. Think about this. I get to be God, and then God is like my cosmic butler. How great would that be? Like, I’m God. I get to be all powerful and all knowing and do whatever I want to do. And then God himself actually serves me.
Sounds like a great deal. Also, the thinking that made the devil the devil, that just dawned on me, terrible thought. Don’t do that. Dangerous, dangerous. Eternal hellfire. Ruin everything in the universe. Not a good thought. But that is basically what the devil thought. And I think we actually do get close to that thinking sometimes I just want to do what I want to do and then I want God to give me what I want.
And when that doesn’t happen, oh, a joy to the world. This is real great. Thanks for screwing up my life, God. Maybe just me. So what do we do? If you’ve ever been there, I think we have to take a page out of Mary’s journey because Mary, I think, did this really well. Joseph was in the mix, too. We don’t get as many details about him. But these four pillars of character development that we talk about actually in my book, the death of a dream, are this, humility, courage, gratitude, faithfulness.
I think if we’re going to actually receive the joy of the arrival of Jesus in our life, not just at Christmas, but all year round, we’re going to have to engage in these four character development things. These will be the things that God is doing in us. He’s developing humility, courage, gratitude, and faithful in us. Faithfulness in us so that those can be actually brought into the world through us.
It’s in and then through. So the first thing we do is this. We humbly receive it. We humbly receive the arrival of Jesus in our life. Come back to Mary and Joseph. Right. Mary’s cousin Elizabeth, she’s six months pregnant. God sends angel to Nazareth. Right. To Mary. Mary says, greetings you, who are highly favored. The Lord is with you. Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.
But the angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary. You have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. That’s what God’s doing in her, right? Here’s what I’m going to do in you, Mary. I’m putting a baby in you. That’s what’s happening in you. Here’s what’s going to happen through you. Here’s what’s going to happen through you. He will be called the son of the most high.
The Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever. His kingdom will never end. So here’s the deal. Jesus is arriving, your life, and they’re going to do some things in your life so that God can do things through your life. Here’s a question. Are you cool with receiving that arrival? How will this be, Mary asked the angel. Since I’m a virgin, the angel answered, the Holy Spirit will come on you and the power of the most high will overshadow you.
So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth, your relative, is going to have a child in her old age. And she who is said to be unable to even conceive a child is in her 6th month, for no word from God will ever fail. Now this next sentence is where we see the difference, because what we have here is God saying, I’d like to arrive in your life, Mary. You’ve been created on purpose and for purpose, Mary. And here comes the purpose. And we’re going to do something in you so we can do something through your life.
Would you like to welcome the arrival of Jesus, a bundle of joy into your life so that you can fulfill your purpose on earth? And sometimes I think we read Bible stories thinking that they had to go this way, and I just don’t think they did. I don’t think just for the special Bible stories that God suspended people’s ability to make decisions. Here’s something I’ve never thought of in my life. Is there a chance there was another Mary before Mary who was like, nah, I’m out.
I don’t know how that theologically all works, but maybe, and if there’s even a smidgen of a chance that could be true, can you think about that? Can you imagine being Mary 1.0 that said no to the arrival? And then you had to find out that Mary 2.0 actually said yes. And now I’m talking about her on some podcast thousands year after it happened and she was able to actually carry the savior of the world.
And you could have had that jam, but you didn’t want to because you still wanted to party on Friday nights. I don’t know what the scenario would have been, but what about that? What about in your life? You’re like, no, here’s the deal. God comes to you and says, here’s what I want to do. I want to do something in you so we can do something through you. It’s going to be a lot of fun. This is a bundle of joy, joy to the world.
Jesus wants to come into your life, but you’re like, whoa, that sounds like it’s a little bit too much. I don’t know that I can humbly receive the arrival of Jesus because, yeah, listen, you’re going to show up in my life and I got some partying to still do. I got a lot of girls I still need to sleep with before I really settle down. Right? Got to sow my wild oats. I got to make some money here. I got to get the car that’s going to make me feel like a man.
Right? I’ve got to have this thing. I need one of those Gucci belts. I don’t know if you’ve seen those before. I’m going to have to have one of those before I start trying to tithe and give money to whatever the situation is. Think about this. You have no idea what God wants to do through your life. I don’t either. You have no idea the impact upon the course of human history that your calling may have.
Pausing just to let you think about that for a minute. You don’t know how massive the impact of your life on the course of human history, on what God is doing to see faith and hope and love change the world. All you know is what you can say yes to right now. And the question I want to ask is the question that Mary had to answer. Will you humbly receive the arrival of this bundle of joy of Jesus into your.
Hmm. That’s a big question. You know what? Question that big. Probably need to take a commercial break just to let you marinate on it for a minute. All right, let’s take this quick break. We’ll be right back.
Is it time for you to take your next step towards discovering your purpose, but you’re not sure what to do? Maybe jumping into the entire Spiritual DNA course seems just, like a little too much for you right now.No problem at all. That’s why I want you to know about the five day jump start to purpose. It’s totally free and it’s a five day audio course you’re going to listen to. Just, it’s really short, like five, six minutes a day. But it’s going to help you just, let’s call it an appetizer, right. To help you jumpstart this process towards purpose. It’s free. All you got to do is go to daronearlewine.com/jumpstart. It looks like this right behind me on the screen. You’re going to go there and we’re going to send you the course for free. And I’ll help you take your next step because, hey, we say it every week. I don’t want you to forget about it. Right. God’s created you on purpose and for purpose. Let’s jumpstart that purpose. Now let’s get back to the podcast.
All right, welcome back. Let’s get back in. You’re talking about bundles of joy, talking about Jesus arriving in your life. He is joy, but it doesn’t always look the way you think it would. So the question is one, can you humbly receive it?
Second thing is this, can you courageously, can you courageously embrace it? Remember, he’s always doing something in you and through you at the same time. So Mary, right, one of the cool things she says is like, she says, I’m the Lord’s servant, right? She’s at this place, she’s got to figure out what to do about it. She says, for no word of the Lord, God will fail, says angel, and then I am the Lord’s servant. Mary answers, may your word to me be fulfilled. Then the angel left her, may your word to me be fulfilled.
Did Mary know what she was signing up for? No, not a chance. If you had given her all the details, would she have said yes at that moment? Probably not. Same thing for you. That’s how God works. That’s how faith works, because usually you’re too scared or arrogant or filling a couple of the blanks of some of the lacks that we may have. That if God were to really show us what he was really wanting to do in and through us, none of us would sign up for it.
But Mary in this moment, chooses obedience. She chooses to humbly say, you know what, I can’t believe that God, you would choose someone like me to partner with, and I hope you’ve had that experience with Jesus. Like wait a second, the God who created and sustains the whole universe, he actually loves me enough that he came to earth, rejected everything that he had in heaven, emptied himself, became a man, came to this earth, lived among us, lived a perfect life, gave his life, died, came back from the dead, and then offers me not just an amazing relationship and a loving connection and forgiveness for my sins, all these things, but he is now inviting me to join him in what he’s doing to create the future. Like, I am so humbled that even is considering that this force and source of love is considering entering my life.
And then the next step is, can I courageously accept this bundle of joy, this opportunity that God has given? Mary does. Mary does. Then it gets worse. So they’re dedicating the child. At the temple, the child’s father and mother marvel at what was said about him. This prophet comes and talks. And then Simeon is this man who was a righteous man in Jerusalem, and God promised him he would see the savior of the world, he would see the messiah before he died. And so Simeon’s there, and he blesses them. And he said to Mariah, his mother, this child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel and to be a sign that will be spoken against so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed.
Then he ends his prophecy with this, for Mary. And a sword will pierce your own soul, too. Just imagine you’re at your local church and this is what happens during your baby dedication, right? I mean, just think about it. The baby dedication, always saying something great. Oh, you know, Daron Cooper, he’s probably. You haven’t dedicated your kids yet, coop. Yeah, he’s got two kids, young kids. They’re still fun. Actually, my kids are fun. His kids aren’t actually that fun. They poop their pants and stuff. But anyway, right? You have these baby dedications. They say great things, right? Oh, Daron Cooper’s son, he’s going to have faith. Like David.
Heart of a lion, right? Tail of a lamb. I don’t know. They don’t talk about tales, you know what I’m saying? They say great things. It’s awesome. Everybody prays for him. Imagine your baby dedication and some old guy stands up and he’s like, oh, your kid. Well, his kid’s destiny caused the falling and rising of many. He’s going to be a sign that will be spoken against. So the thoughts of many hearts are going to be revealed. And you, mom?
Yeah. The other part is a sword will pierce your own soul, too. Joy to the world, right? Jesus is coming to your life. A sword’s going to pierce your soul. This is awesome. God, appreciate it. I can’t imagine that it would. Then King Herod tries to come kill Jesus, suddenly have to escape to Egypt. I mean, can you imagine the amount of fear that Mary had to be battling through at all times in this situation?
Where is this joy the shepherds came and talked about? The message was joy to the world. This isn’t any joy. I’m going to have a sword pierce my soul. This is what I signed up for when it welcomed Jesus into my life. How do I get off this train and get on the regular train where we just have a white picket fence in Nazareth and kind of do our jam? We’ll just make stuff with wood, lay low, try not to cause any problems, and just live. You know what? I just like to be happy.
How about that? Screw this joy situation where God’s doing something in and through me, where I need humility and courage. How about I’m just happy and mediocre? What would cause that kind of thing? Because if Mary was also really listening and understanding, like, wait a second here, I’m just a normal person. The God of the universe has invited me something into this. This simeon guy was promised that he would see the messiah that we’ve been waiting on for thousands of years that would come and actually redeem the people of Israel and make everything right to bring peace on earth and shalom between God and man.
And I think God has invited me into actually being the mother of the son of God. And now I’m going to get a front row seat to see what God is doing to make the entire universe right. If she got anywhere close to that thought, you know what filled her entire soul? Joy. Like, joy unspeakable and full of glory. Like, I think we’re getting a front row seat to God changing the entire world and he’s doing something in and through our life. This is amazing.
And if somebody were to, whoa, what about you? Just go be mediocre. Back in Nazareth, you have white picket fence. You could have one of those cool baby stroller things. Mary, be like, that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. Why would I go waste the one life I have and not fulfill the purpose God’s given me? I tell you what, I got some courage. Let’s go. And that’s what we see Mary do. What about you?
What about you? Right? Why don’t you try? Well, I’m kind of scared. Whatever. Why don’t you forgive them? Why don’t you try forgiveness this time? Forgive yourself. Well, I was such a stupid. Well, why don’t you believe? Why don’t you believe that Jesus is who he says he is? Well, why don’t you ask them out? You’ve been praying about wanting to find somebody to share your life with, so why don’t you go ask them out?
I’ll keep going. But here’s the answer to all these I’m scared. I’m afraid I don’t know that I’ll be able to have the happiness in. I don’t know if all my needs or actually what I want will come from. So I don’t trust God in this. And I’m scared is the answer to most all these questions. We’ll just keep going, okay? Hey, why are you working yourself to death and never taking a day off? Why are you so controlling with your kids.
Why don’t you invite them to church? Or maybe to, like, an outpost or maybe just to get coffee into your life and begin to share the love of Jesus and the joy of Jesus in that relationship. Hey, why don’t you tithe? Hey, why haven’t you gotten baptized yet? Hey, why have you not stepped into the dream that’s actually been filling your soul since you were a kid? How come you’re not doing any of that?
Why aren’t you saying yes to the next step of obedience that Jesus is inviting you into fear? Because I’m afraid and feel like I need to protect the things that I want in life because I’ve yet to say courageously yes to the bundle of joy of Jesus. To say, you can do in me whatever needs to be done, and through me whatever you will, so that I can live my life as it was created to be lived, a life full of joy.
Mmm. I got two more points. I don’t have time. I don’t have time. Might have time. It is my podcast. I guess I could just keep talking. Let’s move quickly. Let’s move quickly. What’s the next thing we do with the arrival of this bundle of joy? So we got to humbly embrace it. Then we have to courageously embrace it. Then we have to graciously protect it. Graciously protect it. Look at the gratitude in Mary.
So what happens is she’s pregnant. Then she goes. She hangs out with Elizabeth for six months. And when she gets there, Elizabeth is like, oh, my gosh, the savior of the world is in your belly. And they have this great, awesome moment. And then Mary sings a song and Mary said, my soul glorifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on, all generations will call me blessed, for the mighty one has done great things for me.
Holy is his name. His mercy extends to those who fear him from generation to generation. Mary was full of gratitude in this moment, right? Like, I can’t believe it. I’m so full of joy and gratitude because God has chosen this humble servant to actually allow me to be a part of what he’s doing. And from generation to generation, the glory and the love and the peace of God will move through my life because I invited Jesus into my life.
You want to know how to protect the joy in your life? Gratitude. Gratitude is the guardian of joy. It just is. Mary could have found some things that weren’t that great to be like, what if she had just thrown a fit here? Like, just been a whiny brat, right? She’s pregnant for the first time. You’ve been pregnant for the first time. Probably a lot of things going on. She doesn’t know what’s going on. She’s gaining weight. She feels bad. Maybe the walk over to Elizabeth’s House, her feet are hurting. There’s a lot of things that could be happening in and around Mary’s life here where she could be like, I’m not choosing gratitude to this. I don’t know what’s going to happen here.
I don’t know what’s going to happen. I have God’s baby growing inside of me. What does that even mean? Like, at some point, do I start growing wings? What’s going to happen? I don’t know. Okay. Is my hair going to be the same color after this pregnancy? I don’t know. Do you gain extra weight when it’s God’s baby? Hard to say. No one’s ever done it before. Think about all the things that could have been in her brain, focusing on not being grateful and protecting the joy of the Lord that was literally inside of her.
But she doesn’t. She chooses gratitude, she chooses humility, she chooses courage, and she protects that joy. I have this whole thing I want to teach you about, about foreboding joy that Brene Brown talked about. All right, listen, I’ll go quick because it’s good. I don’t want you to miss out on this. I’ll stop telling dumb stories and getting all excited because that just wastes time. Okay. That’s kind of the mo. I get it. Maybe that’s why you listen to podcasts, because you’re just waiting for me to get distracted and going a little tangent rant like I’m doing right now, wasting 30 seconds of your time. I get it.
Maybe you did a 45-minute ride on Peloton. I’ve done them. Right. I’m usually a 30-minute guy on the Peloton, but 45 minutes is pretty good. You don’t push you as hard. I notice you don’t stand up in the saddle, right? Get out of the saddle. Not out of the saddle that much in a 45-minute ride. But it’s a good sweat, good calorie burn. Sorry. Once again, I’m wasting your time. Why don’t we choose gratitude?
We don’t choose gratitude and joy because joy is scary to us. Brene Brown says this. If you’d ask me what’s the most terrifying, difficult emotion we feel as humans, I would say joy isn’t that crazy. Of the emotions that is the most scary, that terrifies us the most, it’s joy. No wonder we struggle with inviting Jesus into the depths of our life. Calling joy terrifying may seem strange, but Bernay explains that the fear stems from having our joy taken away.
How many of you have ever sat up and thought, wow, work’s going good, good relationship with my partner. Parents seem to be doing okay. Holy crap, something bad’s going to happen? I’m sure you’ve probably all had that moment. She goes on, you know what that is? It’s when we lose our tolerance for vulnerability. Joy becomes foreboding. I’m scared it’s going to be taken away, that the other shoe’s going to drop.
What will we do in moments of joyfulness is we try to beat vulnerability to the punch. Truly joyful people, Brene says, do not allow fear to take away from fully experiencing joy. They don’t say there’s a shudder of terror about feeling joyful. I’m going to dress, rehearse tragedy, she says. They say, I’m going to practice gratitude. Gratitude is a practice. It is tangible. You want to protect joy in your life, right? Choose gratitude.
It is the guardian of your joy as you welcome what God wants to do in your life. Here’s a quote from a great jesuit priest. I want to hit you with this one because I just want you to think about it. It’s not joy that makes us grateful. It’s gratitude that makes us joyful. Because you may be thinking to yourself, Daron, it’s tough sledding right now. We’re getting into the year, and I don’t know what’s going on in my marriage, my kids off the thing. I don’t know what’s going on with my business.
I’m trying to listen to the podcast, trying to get out of this sense of depression. I’m trying to look for joy. And so you’re saying, here’s the problem. I’d like to do the whole grateful thing, but the problem is I can’t do the joy thing because nothing is happy or going well in my life. I’m waiting for my wants to go the way I want them to go so I can start actually being joyful and then can be grateful. But as that Jesuit priest is saying, right, it’s not joy that makes us grateful. It’s great gratitude that makes us joyful. If you’re looking to turn around the condition of your soul, begin to practice gratitude to protect the joy of the Lord last thought, and then we’ll get done. We’ll be done. Okay.
What do you do with the rival of Jesus, the bundle of joy? Let’s review. Right? You humbly embrace it. You courageously embrace it. I think I had another word. There wasn’t embrace. Humble courage. You graciously protect it, and then you faithfully complete it. You faithfully complete it. Mary stayed in the presence of Jesus for his whole life. And then in John 19, near the cross of Jesus, stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary, the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, woman, here is your son.
The disciple took her into his home. Do you imagine the confusion here for Mary? Joy to the world, the Lord has come. This is good news for all people. Peace on earth. I’ve invited Jesus into my life so that he can do God’s will through my life. But now I am watching my son hang on a cross, experiencing one of, if not the worst forms of execution ever.
There is no way, if there’s a God, he would allow me to suffer through this. I hope you’ve never had to say that phrase, but my guess is you’ve been close enough to someone who has had to say that. And I can only think that that’s what Mary may have felt in that moment, because you got to remember, they all didn’t understand what was happening. How can there be a loving God if that’s what kindness looks like?
Can imagine you what her unbelieving friends would have said to her. Oh, you invited Jesus. You accepted this mission from God, and this is what it got you. Joy to the, huh? Looks more like an absent God. Disappointment, sorrow. You know what you should have done? You should have played it small and gone with the white picket fence back in Nazareth. You guys could probably have a nice retirement community. Maybe one of those little pontoon boats are starting to make right now. Fish on the weekends, right? Might even have some grandkids.
This kid didn’t even give know. He wasn’t even married, didn’t even give any kids. And here he is, dead. Trust God. They, huh? Yeah. Show to the world. Congratulations, Mary. I think those could have been real conversations and maybe some real emotions for Mary in this process. Until Sunday morning, until she began to see, oh, my gosh, what you did in me, God, was help me understand that Jesus is the joy to. What you did in me is you allowed me to become humble and courageous and grateful and faithful and strong.
And now I’m realizing that what you did in me was to allow me to join in what you’re doing to bring joy to the world. Because now the Lord has not just come to earth, he’s come back from the dead, and he has brought Shalom and peace between God and humans. And I have been in front row seat to see what’s happening. I promise you this. If we could go right now, walk into heaven, and someday we will, and we’ll see. Mary. If you walked up to Mary today and you said, mary, hey, was it worth it?
Was it worth it to invite the joy of that bundle of little baby Jesus into your life? She would probably break down crying, yes. Yes. I’d do it a gazillion times. And you’re not going to birth the messiah of the world. Only Mary could do that. But there is a mission for you, that God has created you on purpose and for a purpose for. And he’s showing up in your life much the way he wanted to in Mary, except all the particulars saying, will you receive this joy?
Can you humbly embrace it? Right? Can you courageously go after it? Can you protect it with gratitude? And can you be faithful to the end, to complete it? I think you can. Because I know that when you accept the joy of the Lord, he is your strength. And I know that greater is he that is within you in that process. It’s greater than he that’s within the world. The evil, the darkness that’s around you.
And God wants to do it in you so he can do it through you. Tell you what, I like this episode more than I thought it was. I got all inspired here, about to go sing a Christmas Carol, have some eggnog, and get on this mission that God’s called me into. Listen, I mean that. I’m honest with you guys. God is inviting. I feel like God’s inviting me and our ministry into some uncharted territories in 2024.
He’s opening doors for us right now that I thought I saw he was going to invite us to make an impact in, but I don’t really know how it works yet. I don’t really know what it is. All I’m at is I’m at a place right now where I think I could see the potential impact that God could do through our ministry in the next 510 years. I think I’m starting to see what God wants to do through us. What I have no idea is what it’s going to cost me in me.
Then there’s some fear, there’s some questions. Am I enough to do that? Can I do that? Am I smart enough? And is it, like, all the insecurities, all that stuff? And so I’m at a place right now where I’m trying to apply these things that I’m teaching you in my own life as I lead my own nonprofit. All right, God, I can kind of see what I think maybe you want to do through me. So can I just humbly embrace with courage, with gratitude, stay faithful to what you want to do in me, to make me the kind of person that can handle the weight of the calling that you want to bring through me?
Same is true for you. Ask yourself the questions. Engage in it. If I can help you reach out. Let’s talk, let’s text, let’s email. Thank you for listening to this episode. If you did a 40-minute Peloton ride, you just got finished, and you’re ready to go. So perfect timing. Listen, I appreciate you guys. I love being a part of this with you. God’s for you. He’s not against you. He’s near you, not far away, and he’s created you on purpose and for purpose.
Talk to you guys next time right here on the Daron Earlewine Podcast.