Happy By Choice

I once had the privilege of making a journey into the eastern plains of Colombia called the 'Llanos.' It is an area abou the size of Missouri that is made up of vast plains with large portions of jungles, including part of the Amazon basin.
On that particular trip, I was given the opportunity of preaching in a small hamlet along a tributary of the Amazon. It was a humble church in which the people sat on wooden planks mounted on clay bricks. Not too comfortable, but amazingly it was full. There was only one light bulb in the room and it was situated directly above the makeshift pulpt. Maybe 60 watts. It was quite an experience, dirt floors, open windows, mosquitos hovering around the bulb, everything that church in America is not.
Anyway, the pastor and his family asked me and my preaching partner to visit their home for breakfast at dawn the next morning. I remember walking into their little three room house with no bathroom or kitchen, just a table and three chairs in the living room across from a brick hearth used for warmth and cooking, and two small bedrooms with pallets on the floor for sleeping. My friend and I were offered two of the chairs as we waited for the pastor to return from the fish market. I noticed the same single light bulb over the table. (A couple of the mosquitos looked familiar too! Probably filled up with my own blood.)
After a short time, in came the pastor with a smile on his face and a very large, funny looking fish in his hands. It was part of the first river catch of the day and he had just purchased it with
the previous evening's offering. Being the one who preached, I was the honored guest and was appreciatively given a plate of rice and a bowl of fish broth containing the fish head, eyeballs and all. I greatfully ate the meager meal and later noticed that the pastor's wife and two children had gladly given up their portions so that the preachers could eat. Talk about being humbled.
Yes, we secretly left a large wad of Colombian pesos as a gift for the family, but that in no way was expected by them.
What struck me was how happy the family was, even in their poverty. They were full of joy. Now, some would say they were joyful only because they were ignorant of things they did not have. Wrong! Both the pastor and his wife grew up in middle-class families from the heart of the capitol Bogota, and both had graduated from Bible College. They were educated, well-mannered, and.......HAPPY! Their physical circumstances were not the source of their joy or their unhappiness. They were joyful and happy because they got to serve Jesus. They were happy because they chose to be happy.
I am reminded of that experience from time to time when I am discouraged about the way things go in my 'pampered' existence. I am jolted back to reality by realizing that each of us either chooses to be happy or chooses to be grumpy and down. I like what Nehemiah told his people when they had bad guys on one side and an impossible construction project on the other. Neh. 8:10; "The joy of the Lord is your strength." Whoa Nelly!
Okay, 2008 looms tomorrow. Are we going to be happy....? Your choice! So, instead of burning the calories necessary to be critical, or mad, or sad, or ambivalent, why not expend your energy being happy. All of them rub off, by the way. Make a choice to be happy. Remember that you are not stuck with a pallet for a bed or a single light bulb that you have to share with your church. HAPPY New Year. Pastor Jim