People ask me

What is it like? You are living out your calling, your dream has come true. Everything is falling into place.

The truth is when you are at the heights, that is when things are hardest. Not because of external circumstances. No. Things are in place, you are exactly where you are supposed to be. But there's something so fundamental within you that rears its ugly head trying to kill and suffocate every bit of joy of this season.

Let me correct that. Our fight is not against things of the flesh, but powers and principalities. But there is an essential brokenness within us that responds to the battle by cowering, submitting, and just accepting that things can't be this good and there be joy and peace also. We don't live in a fairy tale.

That's a lie. It's all a lie. Jesus says in the book of John, abide in me and your joy will be COMPLETE.

Complete.

The truth is that, our God, the God of the universe, the One who was also a man and suffered all the same things we suffer and more, that God desires for us to have complete joy in Him.

However, the first lesson I ever learned as a brand new Christian was this:

Choose joy.

It's a choice, every single moment of every single day. And in the season where you are at the heights, choosing joy actually looks more like fighting for joy.

It's a battle. An intense one. God never calls you into safe territory especially when you are walking out His calling for you. It's uncomfortable, frightening, unnerving, and miraculous.

Think about David as he stood before Goliath, or Moses as he stood before the Red Sea. Or Martin Luther King Jr. as he stood in front of that crowd, or Mother Theresa as she traversed war zones to get to her people. Just think what was going through their heads.

The key to winning the battle is this:

Well here's what is not the key. It has absolutely nothing to do with your holiness, strength, talent, ability, skill, amount of prayer times, amount of Bible verses read, or worship songs sung.

The key to winning the battle is this:

Pure, laser-like focus, on Jesus Christ.

All other things must and will fall away. Family, friends, loved ones, ministry, church, leadership, all of it becomes secondary, a fading mist.

Psalm 45 says:

"Daughter, forget your people and your father's house. Let the king be enthralled by your beauty,  honor him for he is your lord."

Forget, leave behind all else. It seems contradictory to leave behind all you love because isn't God all about loving others?

But see, the key is to take your focus of others in that need-to-please, I-must-love-you, kind of way. We must forget all that and focus on God and then we are free to love others unto God and not unto ourselves.

You can be for others, instead of always wondering who is for you.

Pure, laser-like focus on Jesus, also known, in John 15, as abiding, is the key to winning the battle for complete Joy. 

As a matter of fact, it's the key to living a life that is pleasing to God and loving to others. It is the key to truly making an impact that lasts.

This may all seem very simple, but in these mountaintop seasons, sometimes joy is hindered by so many things. Whether it's powers and principalities, your own personal sabotaging, or your reaction to external circumstances both good and bad, joy somehow get's lost. She gets pushed to the back of the crowd along with peace and gratitude.

But we must pull her back. We must run after her, fight for her, because God wants our joy to be complete.

So 5 days before the biggest event in my life next to my future wedding, I say this:

I choose joy.

I choose Jesus, the Lover of my soul, my King.

I choose to honor Him above all the other noises, the pressure, the opinions, the lack of and overwhelming support. I choose to honor Him over my own fears, sadness, insecurities, and anxiety.

I choose You, Lord.

May you be enthralled by the beauty within me that comes solely from You.