Author: Pastor Jeff Smith

Shawn Achor and his family belonged to my church in Woodway, and I had the privilege to consulting with Shawn as he prepared to study at Harvard. He was discerning where God was calling him and what he was going to do with his life. Through his time at Harvard (he will tell you that he got there and never really left), he began to understand the inner workings of the human mind and began extensive work in the field of positive psychology. Shawn is now one of the leading experts in the world on the subject of how happiness and positivity affect the human psyche, and some would argue, the human soul!

See more on Shawn’s work

As I have read his work, it makes sense to me! Happiness is something God wills for us! To be blessed (as we learn from the 5th chapter of Matthew’s gospel) is to be happy. This happiness, however, is not just about the ethereal feeling of happiness; it is the peace that passes understanding and that provides a true “advantage” to whatever endeavors we undertake in life.

In my world, I have discovered that happiness is, in fact, one of the greatest blessings of the Christian life. There are many Christians who are not happy. There are those for whom faith seems like a huge burden they are willing to bear so long as there is the hope of some eternal reward. There are those who look absolutely depressed as they seek to follow Christ.

Then there are those who exude a very superficial sort of happiness. After church, one Sunday many years ago, our family was eating at a favorite Chinese restaurant in Arlington, and I saw a couple who were obviously Christians (my guess was a minister and his wife). They both wore Christian jewelry and were very dressed up. Her hair and makeup were way overdone, and they both had what struck me as “painted on” smiles. At one critical moment, after they had been seated, the man stood to go toward the restroom. When he turned his back, the woman “let go” of the smile and I saw the most tragic look I think I had ever seen. Huge “laugh lines” were drawn in her face; her smile turned almost immediately to a scowl, and for a moment, I thought she was going to start crying. The man got only a few steps away and then remembered that he forgot to tell her his drink order to give the server, and he turned back. When he did, her smile immediately reappeared and the laugh lines and scowl magically disappeared.

It was in that moment that I chose happiness that was a true, authentic happiness and not something that was shallow and superficial. In no way do I believe that Christ calls us to that kind of shallow happiness.

So happiness for me is integrally bound in a spiritual maturity; it is a natural part of the intimate relationship that I seek to have with God. When Jesus talks about happiness or blessedness, he is talking about that peace … the peace that passes all understanding … it is what comes from knowing God and abiding only in God’s love and grace. My challenge for us is that we might find that happiness. My prayer is that people will look at the joy in our lives and call us blessed!

Is happiness your choice? My prayer is that you will find true and everlasting joy and peace!

Remember who you are!

Witness.  We hear the word frequently. When we sign legal documents, we have to have people witness the act of our signing the documents. When lawyers are making an effort to establish their case, they use witnesses to substantiate what they are trying to prove. When people are trying to sell their product, they ask people to witness to or provide testimony as to the wonders of their product.

When we use the term “witness” in relationship to the Christian faith, there are times when we feel uncomfortable because we associate witness with a forceful sharing of faith that tends to lack boundaries. “Witness” is sometimes associated with those who share faith by going door-to-door or those who stand on street corners or those who corner you in public places with questions like “are you saved” or “if you died tonight, where would you be?”

But to witness in the Christian faith is to do so much more than that. It is not only the verbal expression of faith; it is the actual living of faith. Saint Francis of Assisi once said, “Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.”

I consider that quote frequently as I go about my life. There are times that I take advantage of an opportunity to talk about my faith, but as I evaluate my life, my question is not about what I’ve said, but what I’ve done. When I lose my temper behind the wheel, I am witnessing to something other than the love of God. When I become impatient with customer service representatives on the phone, I am witnessing something other than God’s grace. When I am trying to force my ideas upon others, I am witnessing something other than the diverse, wonderful creation of our God. Perhaps Ralph Waldo Emerson said it best when he said, “Who you are speaks so loudly, I can’t hear what you are saying.”

So how will you witness to the love God has poured into your life? How will you witness to the grace that comes from being a redeemed child of God? What witness do you give that points people to the Christ of our salvation?

My prayer is that Christ is made known through everything we do! We are witnesses to something … my prayer is that I am a witness to the Christ who gave everything for me!

We took a few short days to visit our daughter and her family in Panama City, FL, and we took a long (yet very cold) walk on the beach at Tyndall Air Force Base. As we walked along, I began to grow quiet as I remembered …

I had just turned 18 when my high school band took a trip to Lake Charles, LA. While there, I was fortunate enough to have a room that looked out over the Gulf of Mexico. I also had to finish my senior English thesis, which was based on Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, and which itself led me on a spiritual journey. As I sat there, looking out to the farthest horizon on the ocean, it suddenly dawned upon me as a young man that this was a powerful image of God for me.

I am drawn to the ocean’s edge, yet it is something that overwhelms me. The ocean brings life to the planet, yet it also is terrifying when its waves become tsunamis that destroy homes and lives. The ocean is both known and unknown; while it has revealed many of it’s secrets, there are still mysteries that remain unsolved. The waters of the ocean are more vast than any of us can imagine, yet we imagine that we have conquered it when we do nothing more than play in the shallowest of its waters.

Likewise, I am drawn to God, yet the power of God can be overwhelming. God is the source of all life, yet the power of God is something to be feared. God is both known and unknown. While we are capable of knowing God intimately, we can never claim to know all the secrets of God. Our God is the God of the universe, and there are times when, admittedly, I sometimes think I know everything about God when I have only dabbled at the water’s edge.

So today, as we walked along, I explained to Layne how the ocean is a powerful symbol of the God of the universe for me and how I can’t walk along its shores without pausing to consider what it is like to live in the presence of the God of all creation! As I look out over the water, I remember God … I remember this spiritual journey that defines my life … and I remember who I am. I am one who is drawn to the waters of our baptism … I am drawn by the very essence of God.

Remember who you are!

I was getting ready for Christmas Eve services this morning, and as I was deciding what to wear, I decided at the last minute to put on my dress shirt with the French cuffs. After my dad died last April, I have sometimes worn his cuff links as a way of keeping him close to me. This just seemed the thing to do for my first Christmas without him. Then out of nowhere, it hit me. The overwhelming feeling of grief … the profound sense of loss … and the realization that I had failed to mourn. My friend and coach, Don Eisenhauer, has reinforced to me the need to understand those things separately. Grief is the feeling of loss within our soul, while mourning is the overt way of giving expression to our grief. With everything that has happened, I have not mourned … until today.

But today is Christmas Eve … this was simply NOT the time to start mourning. We have four services at Wellspring, and I simply do not have time for this. But I couldn’t stop crying or seeing only the darkness of that first Christmas without my dad. This just had to stop.

Then the realization began to set in. Perhaps this is the best time for me to mourn. As I refreshed myself on my sermon and began to put it into note form on the 1/2 sheet of paper that I will carry in my bible, I saw it as if for the very first time. Historically, we really don’t know the exact time of the birth of Jesus. The early church celebrated the birth of Jesus in various months until, in 350, Pope Julius I declared it to be December 25 to replace the pagan festival of Saturnalia honoring the Greek god, Saturn. And Saturn is the god, in Greek culture, that brings us melancholy and sadness. Why was it celebrated at this time? Because the winter solstice has just happened. The longest night of the year brings the greatest amount of darkness.

And the Christian proclamation is that Christ is the light that has come to conquer the darkness. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness doesn’t extinguish the light.” (John 1:5, CEB) So in some sense, the Greeks acknowledged the sadness and the darkness in our lives, but the tendency is to stop there. We are not trapped by the darkness, and the Christian proclamation is that the darkness will not last because the light of God shines for all eternity.

As I considered my own darkness, yes, it was time to mourn. As I went through the day, all I could think about Jesus saying that we are blessed when we mourn. I think Eugene Peterson had it right in his paraphrase known as The Message. In the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5, Peterson paraphrases Jesus this way: “You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.” And that, friends, is the greatest message of Christmas for me.

So Dad, I am really missing you this Christmas. Yes, I am mourning as I should, but rest peacefully. I have awakened amidst the darkness to discover that I, like you, am held by the One most dear to us all. The darkest night of the year … the dead of winter … is now past, and the light of hope shines eternally.

It is a challenge sometimes, but I think I remember who I am! I am a child of hope!
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In January at Wellspring, we will begin a new sermon series known as Remember Who You Are.  This six-week series is about our DNA as children of God.  It is about our primal identity as creatures of the God of the universe.  It is about you!

When we look in the mirror and ask ourselves, “Who am I?” the Bible has an answer for that.  You are a beloved child of God … you are a brother or sister of the Risen Lord.  You are blessed to be a blessing!  You are given a unique set of gifts and strengths that together are like your fingerprint and make you the one-of-a-kind person God created you to be.  How is God glorified by the person that is uniquely you?  What do you do with those gifts that fulfill not only who you are but builds up the world around you and reclaims it for Christ?

Join us as we explore our own uniqueness and the unique gift that is our savior, Jesus Christ!

Remember Who You Are!