Forget the trivial - live with joy

Last week, a quote by D.L. Moody, the old preacher, popped up on daily quotes on my cell phone. Moody said: “The Lord gives his people perpetual joy when they walk in obedience to him.”

Some synonyms for the word perpetual are: continuing, everlasting, uninterrupted, constant and permanent. So for the Christian, this joy has nothing to do with circumstances. Moody did not say we as Christians will have perpetual joy if we have a good job, if we have a healthy family or if we are able to travel the world or if we live in our dream home. Moody did not say that the Lord gives perpetual joy through material things in life. We only have perpetual joy as Christians if we “walk in obedience to the Lord.”

I have read the biography of Mary Slessor. She was a missionary in Africa at the turn of the 18th century. She was one who walked in perpetual joy, even when her circumstances and environment were difficult. Mary Slessor’s experiences in the harshest of conditions in the 18th century in Africa are unbelievable to us today but yet she served the Lord with joy.

Her early childhood was wrought with alcoholism in the home since she had a drunkard for a father. Her mother was a godly woman and her mother’s forbearance under difficult circumstances, her prayers and devotional life saved the family even amidst the worst of situations. They were extremely poor so to help the family, Mary started work at an early age in the factories in Scotland. She worked 12 hours a day and six days a week.

As a young teen, Mary Slessor felt the call to serve God in Africa. When she was twelve years old, she heard a missionary talk of Calabar, now Nigeria, in Africa, so she decided that Calabar was where she would go. At 29, she left her family in Scotland for Calabar.

In Africa she became known as the “white Ma” and after some months, the people there began to trust and respect her. She told of Jesus and his love for them. She held worship services in front of her mud hut and took medicines and tended to those in need. She held what was called “palavers” and settled disputes among the tribes. Anyone going to the village where she first began to serve might find her on top of her roof, putting tin or her roof or in her mud hut nursing some ailing children that she had rescued.

Since twins in those tribes were considered a curse, a mother who had twins was cursed and the babies killed soon after. But Mary would hear about the birth of twins and walk the miles to the village through the bush even in the middle of the night to cart the twins home after she convinced the parents to let her raise them.

She worked and lived among the cannibals, walked in the bush alone, was charged at by wild animals, was sick with jungle diseases, was hungry many days on end, was alone in the bush at night by herself and was alone in her work with the people of the tribes... but still she served with joy.

The story of her life causes me to look at mine. In self-reflection, I realize now that some days my attitude is anything but joy. I let a little thing like someone taking my parking space or someone cutting in line in front of me at the store rob my joy. Sometimes I let people annoy me and that consumes my thoughts and thus my joy.

After reading about Mary Slessor, I know I have it too easy, so easy that I complain about the slightest and most trivial things. Mary Slessor was in the harshest of situations and yet she served the Lord with joy.

Nehemiah 8:10 reads: “… the joy of the Lord is your strength.” That surely was true of Mary Slessor.

The Christian should have that joy. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. “(Galatians 5:22-23) Mary Slessor exemplified all the fruits of the spirit but certainly joy was her mantle.

I am done with complaining, grumbling and nitpicking about things that really don’t matter. That is what I learned from reading about the life of Mary Slessor.

Judy Brandon is a Clovis resident. Contact her at: [email protected]