Finding Joy

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds,

James 1:2 

It seems silly to look at harder times with joy.  Or when you fail as a way of happiness. 

 

How about when you fall into the devil’s temptation and have a lapse of good judgment? 

 

When you lose your temper and holler at someone, then 10 minutes later after you’ve calmed down you regret your actions.

 

How do you feel “joy” for times like these?

 

It took me a long time, and I still forget almost every day (yes I still make HUGE mistakes everyday) to figure out how to find JOY in EVERYTHING.

 

The key for me is to smile, then pray.

 

By smiling I force myself to be happy for a second.  

 

Then while that is going on I thank God for the situation that I am in. 

 

Let’s say that I fail, things aren’t going as well as I wanted them to go, by smiling I make my mind think for a split second, “hey what’s wrong with this picture, aren’t we supposed to be upset.”

 

Then before my mind has a chance to figure out that it’s really a facade, I pray.

 

I thank God for allowing this to happen so that I could learn.  Then I ask him to help me actually learn this time instead of having to make the same mistake over and over again. 

 

Until finally I learn or something breaks.

 

Here’s what it does.  It allows me to forgive myself for whatever might have happened.  If I made a HUGE mistake (like I always do) I can start the healing process internally.  

 

If my mistakes involve others, which they most always do, then it allows me to go to them and ask for forgiveness. (which can be EXTREMELY difficult, no one likes eating crow.)

 

When trials come my way, I used to fret and worry about them for days, weeks, months, and even years.  

 

Now I paste on my smile, thank God for the opportunities that he is giving to me, and go forward at full strength.

Prayer

God today we come to you to thank you for everything that you give to us.  We thank you for the hard times, the great times, and the times where we seem to be “just” surviving.  Help us to find joy in every occasion and every situation that you allow us to move into.  We know that when we are facing tribulations that you are helping us to grow.  We know that you are always preparing us to move in the direction you NEED us to move.  God, you are amazing.  We talk about a 30,000 foot view of things (where we elevate ourselves to see the big picture).  Well you have a 10 mile (or even more) view of our lives, and we are grateful for that.  So God we hope that you know how much we appreciate your guidance and wisdom that you give to us.  We are grateful for the harder times because they shape us into the people you NEED us to be tomorrow.  Thank you for helping us to throw a smile on and tell the world just how amazing you really are. God we pray that you help us to have the courage to share your works and words with the world every day!  Please be with everyone and help us to grow your ministry in ways that we could never imagine.

Amen

Will you pray with us?

Mankind throughout the world throughout our current situation

All Law enforcement and emergency response personnel

For all military personal serving our country and their families

Those in Leadership positions throughout the world

Prayer

Lord, today we come to you with HAPPY hearts.  We are so grateful that you give us the opportunity to change the lives of those around us.  We are grateful that you give us the wisdom to change our lives and the lives of those around us.  And you make it so simple. We can do it with a single smile. God today I would ask that you help us to smile more. The next time we see someone down, help us to smile for them. The next time we are down, help us to remember that you gave us the best gift ever. The ability to know you, your son, and the holy spirit. God, we are so grateful for everything you give us.

We ask all these things in your Precious Son's Name

Amen

A Little More

 The other day I got a call from one of our clients.

I love talking to our clients so I always smile when I answer the phone.

“Hey Dan, one of my drivers is pulled over and they are saying that our permit doesn’t cover what we weigh. Isn’t that why we hire your team to make sure that these things don’t happen!”

My smile immediately vanished.

I was shocked because my team is amazing. and it’s not like them to miss something like 20,000 lbs on a permit.

So, I asked him, “Who have you been working with, and who was the one who called our team to get the permit?” 

To get to the bottom of the problem I needed the details.

They gave me the details.

My next call was to my team. Then after I got the details I got them started on getting new permits to get the problem fixed. I’m a solutions guy, not an excuses guy.

But I NEED to know the real reason why it happened so that we can fix the issue.

My next call was to the driver so that I could see exactly what happened.

I knew he was going to be upset. He was pulled over and they were going to give him a HUGE ticket. I wouldn’t be happy either.

so……

I made sure not to smile when I made the call.  I had a serious look on my face. As we chatted I learned that he was the person who gave his weight to our team. I asked where he got the weights from and how in the world they were off by over 20K lbs!

That’s when he told me that he might have gotten the wrong scale ticket from the weigh station where he originally weighed.

Immediately my heart leapt with joy, this is NOT our fault!

Now to get the problem resolved and get this driver back on the road was my only goal.  I was not going to assign blame or make anyone feel bad. 

Hey, we all make mistakes. I do it multiple times every single day.

The owner of the company shot me a text. I'm getting permits from the big guys. They won’t make these mistakes that cost me time and $$$$$.

No problem.  Let me know if you need anything. We are here to help.

Well……..

After they called the “BIG Guys” they called me about 30 minutes later.

Hey, we can’t get an Idaho permit until Monday. It’s Friday night. And we need to drop this load off tomorrow afternoon.

I told him that I would NOT make any promises.

But my team went to work!

Guess what????

We got the permits that the “BIG Guys” couldn’t get.

My team had the Idaho permit in less than 20 minutes. For the right weight this time.

Here’s the point of all this.

When things don’t go right, smile. I have taught my whole team this.

That right there is how we got the permits. They smiled as they worked and it didn’t take any time at all.

Ok, there might be a little knowledge that went into this too. Lol

Next time you need anything DOT, don’t call the “Big Guys” , call the team who can get it done!

Dan Greer