January 26-Joy

Scripture Lesson: John 15:9-11

Today is the birthday of baseball’s funny man Bob Uecker. He had a very undistinguished big league career as a player hitting only 14 HRs with a career average of .200. Uecker has become one of the best loved men in baseball because of his work as an announcer (Hall of Fame in 2003) and his ability to use the game to make us laugh, often at his own expense. “When I came to bat in the bottom of the ninth with the bases loaded and two outs, I looked in the other teams’ dugout and they were already in street clothes.” Bob Uecker has a great sense of joy in his life and shares that joy of the game with us freely.
These words from John’s Gospel were spoken by Jesus to his disciples on the eve of His death. He wanted the disciples to know the key for having joy in their lives. The keys are to remain in His love and to obey Him. When we do those two things, Jesus tells us we will have His joy in our lives and our joy will be complete. Our joy is not complete when we don’t obey or love. Sometimes we wonder why we aren’t happy and why things seem to not go our way. Our joy should be based on loving Jesus and serving Him. If we are struggling with the absence of joy in our lives, then we must look to see if we are truly obedient loving followers of Jesus.

1. On a scale of 1 to 10 rate your joy, 1 little joy, 10 abundant joy.
2. Now rate your obedience to God, 1 not obedient, 10 following God closely.
3. Do the numbers match? What does that tell you today?

Jesus wants each of us to experience a joyful life. He has given us the keys: loving and obeying. The choice is ours today, let’s choose joy!!