A Happy Place

"Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.

John 16: 22 NKJV 

Where is your happy place?  You know, that place where you seem to spend a good amount of your time.  For me, lately my happy place has been a my local gym.  I have a good friend who's happy place is working on his old Jeep.  The truth is, we all have that place where we go to feel happy and content.  Unfortunately, there are those among us whose happiness is derived from alcohol or drugs as well.  There was that time where I found my happy place to be sitting inside one of Portland's strip clubs.  Well, let me just say that my current happy place is much less expensive than my last venture.  But, that is where I chose to spend my time.  What changed?  What made me realize that those things which I was doing were not beneficial to me?  Well, my own realization of who it is that I really am for one.  What also changed was my perception of who Jesus truly is.  I've written many times about the truth of Christ.  Of how the apostle Paul has introduced to us a new way of seeing Jesus.  Paul assures us that the Jesus he knew will never leave us.  That's because He lives on through us {Galatians 2:20}.  In my heart I always knew that Jesus was a living being, I just thought that He lived in heaven.  That is what I had been taught.  So, Christ has never been dead to me.  Just, shall we say, misplaced.  What's also interesting is that I could go all of those years in whatever happy place I'd found without knowing that Jesus was there with me.  Go figure.  Let me say that my circumstances are not that much different from any that others may be going through.  You might be going through a drug addiction and feeling as if that is what makes you happy.  Hey, I've been there.  You might see a abusive relationship as a happy place, I get it.  Whatever you see as that place where you feel content, know that Jesus is there with you.

"I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."

Galatians 2: 20 NKJV 

One of the thoughts I used to justify my bad behavior back in the day was that, "Jesus wants me to be happy."  Whatever it is that I'm doing, Jesus wants me to be happy doing it.  Well, was Jesus happy sitting there in a strip club?  Yes, that might have been my happy place at the time, but was Jesus happy as well?  Now, before you get bent out of shape because I'm placing Jesus in a strip club, remember that Paul assures us that Christ is indeed in us.  Knowing this, we can then assume that whatever it is we do, Jesus is there.  However we choose to conduct ourselves, Jesus is there.  So, yes, Jesus was indeed there with me while I killed time at the strip club.  Was He happy there?  Not at all.  But He was there because He is in me.  That changed one night when, as I was about to spend another night in my happy place, Jesus reminded me of the man that I really am.  I was not the man who walked into these places for enjoyment.  My happiness did not come from things which the Lord does not look fondly on.  So it is with you as well.  I ask again, where is it that you find happiness?  Is Jesus happy there with you?  I know that you might have convinced yourself that He is...but is He really?  Are you living your life in a way that Jesus who is in you can be happy as well?  I wasn't.  That is, not until I realized who it is that I truly am.  I'm not a man who is happy without Jesus.  I'm also not a man who is happy in something which brings grief to Christ.  That's not who I am.  So, for now I'll find my happy place in the local gym where I continue to make myself healthier.  In my heart, I know that Jesus is happy there with me.  

~Scott~