Focus for 2022
When I was younger I thoroughly enjoyed acting in small plays and musicals. One of the most memorable roles I played was when I was ten years old. I played the role of a young girl named PollyAnna based on the book PollyAnna by Eleanor Porter. Ten years later and this role continues to stick out so vividly due to the lifestyle this little girl lived that I got to bring to life on stage. PollyAnna played a “glad game” everywhere she went and taught it to everyone along the way. Her game was to always “find something in everything to be glad about”.
When I first learned about this game I did not realize just how important it was to look to “find something in everything to be glad about”. However, there appears to be a misconception in our world about what it means to be glad. Being glad does not mean you put on a fake smile and act like everything is okay. True gladness is more than that. True gladness is rooted not in your circumstances but in something more. All throughout scripture we see the command to be glad and to rejoice. Rather than living in fear, anxiousness, insecurity, gloom, etc we are to live a life marked by rejoicing in the Lord.
Rejoicing does not entail going through life dismissing the hardships we go experience. Rather, truly learning to rejoice involves looking at the situation you are in and not allowing yourself to be beaten down but instead choosing to look up and rejoice. Rejoice for God is good. Rejoice for you are not alone, God is with you. Rejoice for the gift of Salvation that you have received in Christ. Rejoice because the hardships are momentary, they are shaping you and you are growing through this season. There is always something to rejoice about.
Now more than ever people need to look up from their momentary afflictions and remember the goodness of God. People need to remember the simple joys in life. A practical way to do this is found in the simple act of journaling. Journaling your prayers, hardships, unexpected blessings, and everything that happens in life. I am so bad about journaling but every time I find a journal I once started I read it and see the ways God showed up and answered prayers that I forgot I prayed. God is always good and always working but sometimes we are so distanced by the smallest of things that we forget to look around and see the goodness of God.
My hope this year is to better learn to rejoice in who God is. Rather than getting wrapped up in disappointments, hardships, insecurities, etc. I want my focus to be on who my God is. My challenge for myself and for you is to rejoice IN the Lord through everything (Philippians 4:4) but also to set my mind on things that are above (Colossians 1:2).
Romans 12:12-15 also speaks to the point of rejoicing through everything life brings and living a life marked by selflessness that I desire to focus on. Romans 12:12-15 → “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.”
Together lets live lives marked by rejoicing in the Lord through everything this year brings. Rather than focusing only on how hard or difficult various situations are let’s remember the truths of who are God is. Let’s be known for a deeper routed joy that doesn’t make sense to the world. Let’s go out of our way to “find something in everything to be glad about”.
