The Joy of Living | Learning to Fully Embrace the Life God Has Given You

And, and so I wanna ask you a question just to, uh, launch into the discussion today, and that is when did life become so serious? When did life become so serious, so stressful, uh, so pressurized? Uh, for everybody.

Uh, from everybody from a teenager or even a child to an adult.

Statistically it shows that the generation, uh, that, that are teenagers now from 10 until 18, they are the most stressed, uh, of, of all.

They deal with anxiety like no other.

In fact, a, a recent statistic that I heard was the amount of anxiety, um, a teenager faces today is that of what somebody in a psych unit would have dealt with in, in the l- the early mid- to early 1900s.

And so when you understand that, you understand that there is a pressure that is on society in general today, and it creates a seriousness inside of us.

And, and I think that translates into our relationship with God, because we know the time is coming short, that the end of the world is gonna be coming soon, um, that Jesus is gonna be returning.

And so with that also comes the pressure of fulfilling our purpose, maximizing every opportunity, uh, getting everything right.

We're in a society where everything is measured and calculated.

Are you feeding your kids right? Uh, we have watches and rings that tell us, you know, are you sleeping right? Are you managing stress right? And all of this information is good, but sometimes it can suck the life right out of us.

It can suck the joy of living right out of us.

So we're gonna have this conversation today.

And so I wanna ask you, you know, what does your life look like? Do you have rhythms of joy? Do you have rhythms of fun? Uh, we're gonna ask the question what is the difference between living a life of joy and actually experiencing fun, and is that okay as a Christian? And so when is the last time you just had fun, you did something not because it produced an outcome, not because it was on your to-do list, uh, not because it, it was maximizing an opportunity or fulfilling a, a goal in your life, you just gave your perm- yourself permission to have fun? And so, you know, like I said before, I love personal growth, I love getting better, but when's the last time you did something not as a metric of productivity, but just because you enjoy yourself? So, you know, there's many times in our lives that we can turn our lives into a project.

Uh, we bought a, an old farmhouse years ago, and I think about that as a metaphor for life.

You know, I saw something that was a project, and there's a part of me that loves, uh, turning things into something beautiful, whether that is grabbing a, um, a person I can mentor and pulling out the best in them or buying an old farmhouse that is project upon project, uh, to work on.

And so, uh, we bought this, this project house, and, and it always gave us something else to do.

There's always something else to fix up.

If you're a homeowner, you know that the project list is literally endless.

And so, but many times we can turn life into a project, always working on what's next.

We can almost get into robot mode.

Uh, like I said, I'm talking to the audience that, that are high achievers, the ones that are always trying to grow here.

We're always looking for what's more and what's next, and in the process we can forget to live.

And so I have this, this saying that I tell myself when I get super, uh, stressed or super project oriented or become, uh, tempted to be a workaholic even for the Lord, uh, it, and it's this saying, "Don't forget to live." Don't forget to live.

Write that down if you're taking notes today as a good reminder for yourself.

Don't forget to live.