By Daniel Garner
"And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" -Philippians 4: 7.
"People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be" -Abraham Lincoln
Okay, so what makes you happy?
When you were a kid, if you were anything like me, it was candy. Whole swaths of my childhood were occupied by one thing: GET CANDY.
That van over there? Totally looks legit candycandycandycandy. As I got older I added things to the list but I eventually learned that there's a difference between happiness and joy. Today in Mayflower, Arkansas, I saw families who literally had nothing left from the tornado and storm damage.
Not even a kitchen sink.
But they had each other, and their faith. Happiness can be taken away, but joy can't.
If we find it in the right place.
I've always tried my best to do that. Though I'll be honest, I fall short sometimes.
One of the things that I do to try and ground my perspective is at any church I've ever spoken at I always measure the distance between the door and the pulpit.
Peoples entire worlds can exist in that small space. Births, baptisms, weddings; deaths.
It's that small space where peoples lives can be won, or lost. That's why it's so important to place faith where it's warranted and not in pews, carpets and sound systems. Those don't matter.
But the person next to you does, and for Whom you're there in the first place.