Joy is what happens to you when you recognize how good life really is and it’s good because it’s God-given.
SHAUNA: This is Shauna on Joni Eareckson Tada: Sharing Hope and here we are encouraging you to seize the day!
JONI: That’s right; we’re a place where we seize the day, or as they used to say in Roman times, carpe diem. Seize the day. Take hold of it and make it your own. And of course I add, do it for the glory of God. It’s what my disability demands that I do every single morning. In fact, as my girlfriend was getting me up this morning, I said out loud, right before she transferred me from the bed to my wheelchair, I quoted Isaiah 60:1, “Arise and shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord is upon you.” And then together we sang, “Rise and shine, and give God the glory, glory. Rise and shine and give God the glory, children of the Lord!” Okay, you might be laughing at that, or you might think that’s pushing it a bit—like, a little out of the ordinary, a little unrealistic, maybe even a little corny, but for me, never. It is my way of doing the carpe diem thing. It’s my way of seizing the day!
After all, this is the day the Lord has made and you better bet, we will rejoice in it! As I said, my disability demands that I do it every morning. The joy of the Lord is something I'm willing to bet my life on with the dawn of every new day. And that joy comes from the deep conviction that every day is a gift from God. I am to choose him at every turn, in every circumstance, no matter how hard the affliction. I must choose him in every situation, all for the joy of bringing him glory. And it starts; it begins, when we get out of bed in the morning, and when I sit up in my wheelchair. I say to my soul, “Joni, seize the day.”
An anonymous author wrote, “This is the beginning of a new day. God has given me this day to use as I will. I can waste it or use it for good. What I do today is important because I am exchanging a day of my life for it. When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever, leaving in its place something that I have traded for it. I want it to be gain, not loss; good, not evil; success, not failure; joy, not discouragement; hope, not despair in order that I shall not regret the price that I paid for it.” Isn’t that a great quote? And Psalm 90:12 says the same, “Teach us to number our days, oh Lord, that we might apply our hearts unto wisdom.”
Friend, things we don’t number, we tend to waste. When we allow our days to be an endless, ho-hum string of 24-hour segments, all blurring into each other, when we fail to number our days, to count them and seize them and take them by the horns, we drift. We meander through the moments, thoughtlessly moving from one circumstance to the next. So please, I invite you to do what I do: ask God to open the eyes of your heart [as it says in Ephesians] so that you might know the hope to which you’ve been called, the glorious riches that are yours in Christ, and the incomparably great power that God gives you moment-by-moment, day-by-day. Oh, my goodness, hope, riches, power, what more could you want out of your day?
So, rise and shine tomorrow morning. You could be burnt toast and heading for hell. But Jesus has rescued you. He’s redeemed you to live this day in his hope, with his riches and with power to seize every moment. Thank you for joining me with this carpe diem outlook on life. Because joy is what happens to you when you recognize how good life really is and it’s good because it’s God-given. Thanks for listening today on Joni and Friends.
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