I Choose Joy - January
I Choose Joy
- Kim Pickard Dudley
Tether Me to My Creator!
One of my favorite past times has always been to settle into a comfortable reclining chair with a bowl of buttered popcorn and watch my favorite NFL football team play on television. My heart always pounds with such excitement!
This past year, I rediscovered my love for playing games! What fun it’s been to play a long stint of dominos or a round or two of exhilarating ping pong. It’s been such fun playing cards – be it rummy, pitch, euchre, pinochle – you name it!
It’s so nice to release a little energy by having a fun, healthy competition. To spend time with my friends or family. And to just take a relax-break – and divert my focus away from some of the harder things in life.
Are you with me?
There’s this one game – I played it a lot as a kid – called tetherball.
Do you remember tetherball?
It goes like this:
It’s played with two opposing players, with a stationary metal pole from which a rope (or a tether) with a ball is hung.
The two players stand on opposite sides of the pole.
Each player tries to hit the ball one way; one goes clockwise, and the other counterclockwise.
When a player hits the ball past their opponent, the rope wraps around the pole.
The players hit the tetherball, back and forth, with the goal of trying to hit the ball out of reach of the other, in hopes that the ball sneaks past their opponent.
If the player succeeds, the rope wraps around the pole in their favor.
As the tetherball rope wraps around the pole, the rope gets shorter and shorter until finally it can’t wrap or be hit any more.
The game ends at this point, when the ball is right up against the pole – without rope to hit.
When I was about 10 years old, it was what we did around my rural neighborhood.
2020 reminds me of tetherball.
Pick a topic … Covid-19. Masks. Social distancing. Travel bans. Vaccinations. The election. Early voting. Mail in ballots. Racial injustice. Police reform. Immigration. DACA. The media … to name a few. (There are no political undertones here whatsoever; the point is to list a few of the hard issues that we faced in 2020!)
One player hits “the ball” one way; the next player the other way. Back. And forth. Around. And around.
Until one “player” is stopped. And the “ball” is up against “the pole” without “rope” to hit.
2020 reminds me of tetherball.
It surely wasn’t the same kind of fun that I remember when playing it as a kid. I’m not sure, either, that there were ever really winners.
I didn’t particularly enjoy the 2020 tetherball game.
It was challenging. Unfamiliar. Uncomfortable.
I’m grateful to have the 2020 tetherball game in the rearview mirror!
I’m even more grateful that 2021 is staring us in the face, with a blank slate of prospects of improved possibilities!
YES!
How do we approach the new year, with all we’ve been through, and get our focus on the joy that God has for us?! And the hope?! And the peace?! And the love?!
Here are a few ideas:
(1) Ask God to show you what lessons from 2020 are meant for your good, for your growth and for His glory.
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” (Matthew 7:7)
“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.”(James 1:5)
“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish will give him a snake instead?” (Luke 11:11)
2020 was a year like no other!
There are takeaways for us, though, as our heavenly Father wants us to learn from our experiences.
He wants us to grow on our journey with Him.
While we’re tempted to just move on from the year like we’ve never seen before, the year that sometimes seemed like the dark days of winter that never ended, let’s stop and ask God for the nugget that will help us move forward with joy, hope, peace and love.
We know that some of our greatest lessons and life applications are learned from either our pain, or from our life experiences that we wouldn’t have chosen, right?
Our past is our history … and one way or another, it shapes our tomorrows.
So let’s take the time and ask God for help seeing what He’d have us to see.
Many have cited how they embraced the slower pace that 2020 yielded out of necessity. Others – way more family time. We all seem to have more gratitude for the little things that were “just what we did” – like having a cup of coffee with a friend. We learned to take nothing for granted – like sitting with a loved one when they’re sick in the hospital.
Who’d have thought we could endure one thing after another after another for a whole year?! But we did. We learned to persevere. And to develop grit, right?
I already know one lesson God taught me in 2020 – no tetherball.
I won’t allow or participate in hitting any “ball” only to have someone hit it the other way. And hoping the “rope” gets so tight it can’t move.
It’s not who I am.
It’s not who I aspire to be.
2020 affirmed and reaffirmed this for me: I want my life and my legacy to be one of kindness. And humility. And encouragement. I want my voice (and my typing fingers) to reflect God’s goodness and His faithfulness. I will use my voice to lift others up. Period.
I guess tetherball is one game that isn’t for me.
Here’s a second idea how to approach 2021 and get focused on the joy, the hope, the peace and the love that God has for us:
(2) Keep! Your! Thoughts! Healthy! And on what you know to be true.
“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any praise, think on these things.” (Philippians 4:8)
The 2020 tetherball game was played with opinions. And with very little actual knowledge as we navigated one unfamiliar issue after another.
Opinions are just that – opinions! Everyone has them! And that’s ok.
But God saw differing opinions in advance. And He told us exactly what to do – to “keep your thoughts on what’s true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report!”
Don’t get bogged down in “the noise.”
I am His beloved child. As such, my Father in heaven has promised to care for me, tend to me, provide for me, help me, nurture me, be with me!
As believers in and followers of Jesus, these are indisputable truths.
Think on such things.
And finally:
(3) Tether yourself to your Creator.
“Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.” (Isaiah 26:4)
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path.” (Proverbs 3: 5,6)
“He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”(Psalm 91:1,2)
This is where I’ll be choosing to land in 2021!
Tethered! Bound! Securely attached … to my Creator. To The One whose words and promises are sure and true.
Playing the back and forth tetherball game with life’s hard issues is exhausting. It’s defeating.
Clinging to Him, however, is safe. It’s sure. It’s where we find our greatest joy.
2020 was like a long game of tetherball. Wear a mask. Hit it. Hit it back. Voter fraud. Hit it. Hit it back. Pick another issue. Bam. Bam. And on! And on!
I’m up for a new game in 2021!
Let’s set ourselves up to win in 2021 (1) by asking God to show us what lessons from 2020 are meant for our good, our growth and His glory, (2) by keeping our thoughts in a healthy place and on what we know to be true, and (3) by tethering ourselves to our Creator.
By doing these things, we’ll move towards what God desires for us – fullness of joy, eternal hope, a peace that passes all understanding, and the unfathomable love of a Father who would sacrifice His only Son on a cruel cross for us.
“I’m ready now! Let’s start a new game! One where we know the outcome – and my friends – it! Is! good! ”