How to pick what to do when you have some extra time on your hands.

How to pick what to do when you have some extra time on your hands.

So, with all this extra time on my hands, it's been interesting.
I'm sure a lot of you are like me,  I know some of you are anyway!  I have activities up the Yangtze River that I could be accomplishing.  I could be painting, both artwork and my house.  I have dozens of unfinished projects laying around.

I decided the questions to ask to help me maintain priorities during this time are:
 "If you get to the end of your life and this is not done, will it matter?"
"Which items on your list will help you out the most in the future to have done? (It will be a relief, it is something that is Needed).

Joy and the purpose of life

God wants us to have joy in our lives, but that is not the main purpose of our life.  If that is all we are seeking, we are heading in the wrong direction; we are lost.
We need proper balance in our lives...seeking God and His will should be paramount, but it comes very natural to us to also seek our own joy.  

Why do people have children?  I believe mostly the answer is joy.  Children provide joy and completeness, wholeness and balance to our lives.

Why do people sing and dance and draw and write and play sports and watch sports?
I believe the answer also is joy.  peace.   pleasure.   Different people find their joy in different things.

Why do we seek the company of like-minded individuals? (Why do we socialize)?  Again,  you know the answer to this... -Joy-   This is also an inherit need in our life. We need people.

Some people find fulfillment and joy in their work (the lucky ones). :)  They excel at something and they get paid to do it!  Some people may not naturally enjoy their work,  but they choose joy.  This is actually possible but requires a lot of mind bending;  a lot of mental work! :)

For the devout believer, there is another Place where joy is found, a Holy, Sacred Place.  This is in the presence of God.  Yes, God is present in the joy of our children,  He is present in the joy of our hobbies and watching others perform hobbies that they excel at.  He is present in our pleasure/enjoyment of people and in our enjoyment of work (if it is all in proper perspective).  The minute those things become our life, He is no longer in it.
But Joy in the Presence of God, for those who have experienced it, is like no other joy.  I could describe it, but until you know it, it won't mean anything to you.  He is available to all who seek Him.  If you seek to find joy in His presence, you will not be denied.  Those who find Him find peace, love, kindness and  inexplicable forgiveness and love and joy.  "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be".  Luke 12:34

But this dissertation about joy does not explain something else in life.  Sorrow.  Suffering.  Death.  These words that command the silence of a room.

 We all know, that these, also, are a part of life.  No one wants them or enjoys them.
But as a Christian, we look to Jesus' death on the cross as the ultimate in willing suffering.  He chose to be tortured for us.  Most of us would not choose suffering if we had an option.  Suffering is just there and we endure it as best we can.  Many Christians around the world choose actions that cause suffering for themselves.  Many more Christians choose to suffer with those that are already suffering, which actually bears the burden of suffering and causes true empathists suffering as well. Why?
This is where the labyrinth tunnel gets very twisted and there are so many different paths that 'I', the writer can take.  The answer is that choosing to suffer with God is more desirable than the other outcome;  continuous willfully disobedient suffering.  There is a peace that "passes understanding" for those that are suffering in the will of God versus those that suffer as a consequence of their own inpalitable actions.  That type of suffering (in the will of God) is worth it for those who figuratively hold God's hand through it.  His Presence is with you.  It is the kind of Presence that is dear and comforting.  It is warmth, kindness and healing in the midst of intense pain (both emotional and physical).  This type of inexplicable comfort of never being left to suffer and die alone.  NEVER.
Most people that have experienced any type of intense suffering and have had His presence say that He made the suffering endurable.  And it is hard to imagine anyone not wanting to have comfort in the midst of intense suffering.

So this diatribe was to tell you (and work through myself) the balance seeking of pleasure for ourselves and of allowing into our lives, suffering in the will of God (for example, joining some type of humanitarian effort that will probably cause you some suffering).

The long and short of all this is to 1) Wait sweetly upon God (be actively reading His word and talking to Him in prayer) 2) Do what He tells you to do  3) Be ready for the call....because he will call you to do something  4) Be willing to abandon your thing that gives you joy;  (Anytime you give something up for Him, He fill that hole many times over with something better-although it might not be what you expect).