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For the Joy of It
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Rev. Carol Pobanz August 26, 2007 |
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Readings: Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. 2 Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. 3 Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. 4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. 5 For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations. Psalms 100
There is no limit to joy. Happiness has no end. When you are standing in the love of God, every cell of your body jumps for joy. You breathe in and out with the entire universe. In this state your life is fulfilled. This is how God means us to live, intoxicated in love and joy. And through your joy, God receives his joy. The joy of man is the joy of God; and the joy of God is the joy of man. Sun Myung Moon 10/20/73 Introduction Are you happy with your life? Are you happy with your job? Are you working for the money or are you working for the Joy? Would you work if you weren’t getting paid? The topic of my sermon today is “FOR THE JOY OF IT!”
The essence of the Divine Principle is the Principle of Creation. The purpose of Give & Take action is to create unity. The highest purpose of unity is to provide the basis for experiencing true love. And true love is the source of true joy.
A. Poem There is a poem by Robert Frost that I’d like to read - not the whole thing but a part: for Two Tramps in Mud time
But yield who will to their separation,
“My object in living is to unite My vocation: That is my job—the thing I have to do. AND My avocation: My hobby or the thing that I love to do—the thing I am passionate about. How about you? Is your job and your hobby the same? Do you do the thing that you love to do…the thing that brings you joy? Do you do that for your living? Some people are able to do what they want to do. But for how many of us is this possible? Life just doesn’t deal it that way. So if you can’t do what you love to do, perhaps it is good to love whatever you do. You must find joy in the task that you must do. WORK FOR THE JOY OF IT B. But how do you work for the joy of it? There is a story about 2 men who are chiseling marble. A priest asks the first man, “What are you doing?” and he replies, “I’m chipping stone.” Then he asks the second man and he replies, “I’m building a cathedral.” The two men were doing the same job but one is a stone chipper and the other is a cathedral builder. One man is doing what he has to do and the other man is doing what he loves to do. I just want you to stop and think for a minute—think of the people you know who love what they do. It’s a joy to be around them, isn’t it? You might also think about people who don’t love what they are doing and think about how it feels to be around them (but I wouldn’t dwell on that for too long). It’s great to be with people who are happy with what they do, but what is even greater is to be with people who are happy with whatever they do—those who can take whatever life deals them and be positive about it. So, are you a stone chipper or a cathedral builder? If you aren’t happy with what you do, it’s not time to find a new job; rather, it is time to find a new way of looking at the job you have. C. How can we change the way we look at the job we have? I have three points: 1. 1. Begin Each Day with a Full Cup Joy is about passion. It’s about love, it’s about God, it’s about people, it’s about relationship, it’s about being filled with energy, it’s about filling your cup. But it’s difficult to be filled with energy if nothing is coming in and you are running on empty. I want you to think of five things that you love to do outside of your work to fill up your cup. Is that difficult? Are you running on empty or perhaps on low? How often do you do each of those five things that you love to do? You can’t fall in love with your work unless you come to work with a full cup. There are thousands of ways to fill your cup but we need to be sure we take time to do them. When we fill ourselves up, it spills into everything that we do. Of course, one way to fill your cup is through prayer. But then I question, do we pray in joy? Now, I don’t want to get off into another subject but— Do we pray in joy? Our prayer is not only our report to God at the beginning or end of the day—our prayer is our life as we commune together with God and make him a part of our everyday activity. 2. Start your own Engine But sometimes all I want to do is go to sleep. Sometimes when the energy isn’t there we have to make our own energy. A number of years ago, a wise elder sister told me: “Whenever you are unhappy, you should serve someone.” Why would serving make a difference? If we’re tired and lack energy, then we’re not having a “give and take” relationship with anything or anyone. Serving someone is like turning the key in the ignition of a car; it starts the engine going again. It restarts the give and take in “your motor.” Sometimes the spark just isn’t there and you have to do something to make your own spark Did you ever hear about people doing random acts of kindness? I was listening the other day to some guy’s testimony about random acts of kindness. He said, and I paraphrase: The suggestion was that you pay the toll for the guy behind you when you go through a toll. And he thought about it many times, but each time he was about to do it, he changed his mind. Then, finally, one day as he was approaching the toll plaza, he thought, “OK, today is the day no matter what.” And as he got to the toll, he took out the double amount to give to the lady collecting the money. Then he looked behind his car and there was a shiny black Porsche…like he needs his toll to be paid. But anyway the decision was made. He handed the money to the lady and said, “That’s for me and the guy behind me.” The lady looks at the Porsche and then at his Subaru and starts to laugh, and says, “You don’t know him do you?” The guy replies, “Nope.” So, the lady takes the money. When the Porsche comes to the window, the driver tries to give the lady his money and she won’t take it, and then she’s talking to him. Finally the guy pulls his arm back in and floors his engine and, as he passes, he raises his arms in thanks. And the Subaru guy says, “I think I made his day, I think I made the toll collector’s day and I know it made my day.” Sometimes you just need to add the spark to get some joy going. 3. Express Gratitude But the factor that most determines your happiness is gratitude. Just say “thank you” now and again. I remember many years ago leaving a friend’s house in West Virginia real early in the morning (before 5 am) and, as I went over the crest of a huge hill, I was greeted with the most beautiful sunrise. It was so beautiful that it actually took my breath away, and all I could feel was gratitude—gratitude to God for that incredible beauty, because God is always throwing these beautiful gifts in front of us for our joy. We just need to thank God and follow suit and throw some beauty in front someone else. Of the best examples I can think of regarding gratitude, there is one that is very close to my heart. I don’t know exactly why, but my husband always makes it a point to say “thank you” to the maker of his meals. When we were first married, I was living up at UTS and Kerry was going to graduate school at Fordham University and he only came to visit me and the kids on the weekends, so I never cooked for him. And then I became the city leader in Poughkeepsie. So, when he visited there we had one sister who cooked meals for our center. And after each meal, he always thanked the sister. I always noticed it but it never meant anything to me. Then, after Sammy was born, I moved to Newburgh and there was a different sister who cooked for the center there. Kerry always thanked her and I noticed it but, again, it never meant much to me. But when the twins were born and Kerry had to move up to Newburg and commute from there, everyone else moved out of the house. I don’t think that they were interested in living with us anymore with 4 boys in the house. In any case, it was six years into our marriage and I was cooking dinner for him for the first time. And after each meal, as he always did with the other cooks, he said “Thank you; that was good.” Well, I want you to know that I fell in love with my husband that day. That little “thank you” gave me such JOY; it just meant so much to me. The more gratitude we express, the more joy we give, and the more joy we give, the more joy will return. Express gratitude to God. As it says in today’s reading: “And through your joy, God receives his joy. The joy of man is the joy of God; and the joy of God is the joy of man.” These are just a few suggestions to change the way we see our job—some things we can do to bring a fresh spirit to the task: · Do the things you love to do to fill your cup up so that it can spill over into you daily routine · Become the spark to restart your engine by giving to others · Remember to express gratitude for everything and anything you receive. D. Make Your Contribution They say, “A bird sings not because it has an answer but because it has a song.” We often think that, if the thing we do is not saving the world, then we shouldn’t waste our time doing it. Did you ever wake up to the song of a bird and feel happy? Was the bird trying to make you happy? NO. It was just sitting there singing its joy. Was it trying to make a difference? NO. It was just making its contribution, giving the best it had. But did it make a difference? YES! It multiplied its joy to you. A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, but because it has a song. Doesn’t that take the pressure off? Just make a contribution by doing whatever you do with joy. Your joy will naturally spill into the lives of those around you. There have been those world-changing people like Jesus, or Buddha, Mohammed, Gandhi, Mother Theresa or Martin Luther King Junior. There are those like True Parents. But not everyone can affect the entire world. However, everyone can affect their own world and the people included in their sphere. Do what you do for the joy of it and it will affect those whose lives you interface with. Thank you! Note: to copy onto a word document, highlight the whole text, then copy and paste onto Wordpad, first (Start/All Programs/Accessories/Wordpad), highlight the text from Worpad then copy/paste to Microsoft Word. These steps are necessary to void the website page templates.
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