Hey Hot Rod.. Life is Joy!

Do you ever just sit there in awe of your existence? Are you ever amazed by how fantastic our bodies are and how intricate our design is? Our body system is incredible and follows such an order. When that order gets altered, our bodies don’t work. My bodily order was beyond messed up, but somehow, thanks be to God, my body works smashingly! It has happened more than once where I have found myself poking at my arms and legs, just in shock that I can move them. One of said moments occurred last Saturday morning.

That morning, for the first time in years, I allowed myself to think about how the crash played out for me while I was still conscious. I wondered if I had seen the car coming or if I was just obliviously driving along and suddenly struck with pain and gone. This might have been the case, but I can only assume I had turned my head and saw the vehicle coming towards me. Would I really not have looked over? Wouldn’t I have noticed headlights quickly approaching on my left side? What would that moment have been like? It would have been scary if the vehicle was only going at a speed of 20 mph, but this vehicle was headed up towards 70 mph; I can’t even imagine. But on Saturday morning, I was trying to. I might as well have been parked perpendicular to traffic on interstate; yikes! Thinking about it that way helps me to realize that my life truly is a miracle. How am I doing so well? One night last week I was stretching with my roommate and jumped down into the splits with ease and the other night I was kicking a soccer ball around. How? With what happened to me, people would probably still be amazed if I was currently in a vegetative state and the toughest physical activity I could perform was twitching my eyebrows. Just the fact that I am alive is amazing! God has just been rocking my world and I don’t know if I’ve been showing that.  Really, my life is awesome. And only because of Him. A few years ago, I was absolutely miserable. But now, although the pain hasn’t left, I am absolutely joyful and excited about life.

I just watched Hot Rod last night and towards the end Rod says, “Life is pain; we have to scrape the joy from it every chance we get.” Later in the night, I got to thinking about that quote. And I completely disagree; life is JOY! It is not pain at all. Yes, we endure pain and there is surely suffering, but the joy comes first. Joy is not something to be scraped out of our lives, but something to be overflowing from our lives and pouring forth into the lives of others. But that won’t be the case if we aren’t putting Christ first, for He is the source of our joy. Before I formed a relationship with Jesus Christ, I would have agreed with Rod Kimble 100%. I was also convinced that life was pain, that I was meant to be suffering, and that I had to scrape the little joy I could from it to get by. But I have since come to realize that I was made for joy and that the suffering I endure doesn’t have to get in the way of that joy. It shouldn’t get in the way of it. This is what enables me to be amazed by the presence of my limbs and the sound of my breathing. It wouldn’t be cool if I had no purpose but to endure pain. Pain or not, I have a purpose. We all have a purpose in Christ Jesus. And He wants to show all of us what He has planned for us. Not so that we have a stricter path to follow, but so that we have a clearer path to True Happiness in Him.

I thought AND dressed like Rod