where does your joy come from?

i promised myself consistency on this thing. and sometimes, i find myself thinking up on the fly what to write when friday and sunday come just so i can say i've written down something. so many other bloggers are much more disciplined in the way that they plan out every blog post and write them ahead of time. me, i'm doing this on the fly. nothing pre-planned, nothing pre-meditated. just me in real time. 

i'm not looking to make you feel better about yourself by pointing to you ten things you could do right now to have a better you. there's really only one thing i can give you for that one: seek Jesus. and i'm not here to tell you the secrets of balancing social media, and how to do a proper 24-hour tech Shabbat weekly or how to look at your phone less or how to better you attention span. i'm not here to teach you how to plan your days and how to meet your goals, or how to create a reading schedule so you can finish at least 4 books a month. i'm not here to teach you about digital minimalism. about what a tech Shabbat even is. about how to be a better writer or reader. i could. but i'm not even here to teach you anything, at all. 

my only purpose is joy. well, and to learn how to write on the fly, in a disciplined manner, in such a way that i can organize my thoughts enough for others to comprehend it, because writing, you know, it teaches you how to think. if you can't put your thoughts in writing, chances are you've no idea what thoughts you actually have in your head. i'm sure i stole that from someone else but i've no idea who...

in any case, i promised myself consistency on this thing, and sometimes i don't really know what to write and so i recommend stuff because it's SOMETHING. and like Yoga with Adriene constantly reminds me (check her out on YouTube!), "a little goes a long way". the Bible, in fact, says the same thing, as all you need is a mustard seed of faith to move mountains, because that tiny faith rests on a giant God.

for the purposes of time constraint and being generally brain-tired, i'll just share this one quote from A W Tozer that i've been thinking about these past couple of days: 

lately, i've had really no need for entertainment. i basically tolerate social media to keep connected to people, but try to limit it to 15 minutes to an hour sessions, for a couple of days a week. i find that anything more than that and i just start to see the emptiness in people's lives, and it makes me sad and depressed and i remain unsatisfied. 

i'm self-aware enough also to wonder whether or not i'm saying that to brag or because it's God's honest truth, and i remember the book of Jeremiah in chapter 9:

"but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.”

i can't find the continuation of Tozer's quote that Pastor Paul Washer quoted, but it's something along the lines of "Because when God comes, there's no need for other things."

i hope i never sound as though i'm boasting about how good i am at handling social media and its addictive component. i take a break one day a week because i've discovered long ago that i'm so inclined towards its addiction, that i NEED that break to handle it. much like a former/recovering alcoholic is not a better person than a current alcoholic for consistently going to AA meetings, they're not any better as they NEED AA to remain sober. in other words, i am just as inclined as the next person towards idolatry, which is why i need to limit my entertainment of useless things in order to save myself from idolatry. 

often when we read that verse in the book of Ecclesiastes that says God put eternity in man's heart, we interpret it to mean only that we long for eternity, or a life forevermore, because we were made to be eternal. but this week i've learned that this also means there is an eternal longing in our hearts, that our hearts have an eternal reserve that needs to be satisfied. if we put everything in the world plus the universe on one side of a scale and Jesus on the other side, the world+universe will fly off the scale because they could never be equal to God. no amount of people or success or money can bring true fulfilment because that God-shaped hole in our hearts is a God-shaped, infinite well made to be filled by an infinite God.

and so i boast in this: that i understand and know the Lord. 

"My soul follows close behind Yahweh; His right hand upholds me."
~ Psalm 63:8 

"He makes known to me the path of life;
in His presence there is fullness of joy;
at His right hand are pleasures forevermore."
~ Psalm 16:11

those who seek God do not need much entertainment because the source of happiness, or more accurately, of true infinite joy, is God and God alone. 

and when God comes, there is no need for other things.