joy

Last night some great friends and I were talking about what it means to be child-like. In Matthew 18 the disciples asked Jesus who was the greatest in the Kingdom of God. I would imagine they were jockeying for position—not much has changed in 2000 years, huh. Anyway, instead of answering them directly, Jesus calls a child over and says they need to be like the child. Hmmm.

For centuries people have wondered what Jesus really meant. What does it truly mean to be child-like? I don’t think Jesus wants us in diapers again or playing video games ten hours a day. That would be childish. We’re to be child-like. Some concepts that seem to fit are things like “surrender,” “trust” and “humility.” Those are great. A good friend of mine once observed that children have an "unshakable confidence in their parents." Wow. While I completely agree and applaud those ideas, though, the Holy Spirit has continually kept one theme in my heart—joy.

Do you ever hate church? Have you ever been in the presence of other Christians and wanted to scream? Do you ever ask questions like, “Seriously? Is this it? Is this what life is all about?!” Maybe you haven't. Or maybe you're in denial. What's amazing, though, is that we don’t see it in children.

My little boy, Josiah, has joy. That boy loves life! He wakes up every day with a smile on his face. He goes to bed every night wanting to be up and play more. He can find joy and fun and satisfaction with the strangest thing. One time his grandparents gave him the gift of a huge red Radio Flyer wagon—it is phenomenal! It came in this HUGE box and…that’s where we lost him. He didn’t even get to the cool gift inside the box because he was so enamored with the box itself. Then, when he saw the big red wagon it was all over. “Two awesome gifts in one?!?!?!”

Even when Josiah has a bump in the road, he bounces back really quickly. He had to get a couple shots the other day. (The doctor is not Josiah’s favorite person in the world.) He squirmed and cried and fussed…for about fifteen minutes. Then, the world was cool again. He found a bug on the sidewalk.

Man, I want to be like that. I want to love life. I want to be filled with joy every day knowing that my Dad has the coolest things in store. Even when things go “horribly wrong” in my eyes I want to have a better perspective. Like Jesus suggested, I really want to be more like Josiah.