Enjoy it.
“Enjoy it.”
These are the words shaping my day to day in my better moments these last couple of weeks.
“Survive it.”
These are the words shaping my day to day in the less than better moments these last couple of weeks.
One reality, two interpretations.
I’ve been watching a YouTube channel lately called “Hangtime”. It features Michael Turk, a former division one punter for the Oklahoma Sooners, turned Miami Dolphin, turned NFL free agent (i.e. he’s out of a job.) He lost his position with the Dolphins shortly after being married and moving to the area - but he seems incapable of losing his joy. He's an absolute goofball anchored in purpose.
He starts out each episode with a committed interpretation of his reality:
“This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:24)
“Enjoy it.”
He lost his dream job and is left without an income or solid home for him and his wife to start their marriage in, and how does he see things?
“This is EXACTLY the day that GOD has made. I can’t WAIT to see what he’s gonna do.”
“Enjoy it.”
I love it.
Every day, regardless of the circumstances we wake up to and find ourselves in, we have a choice as to how we interpret the reality that surrounds us. A moment by moment decision to see all of life by either one of two ways: a burden to bear, or a gift to receive. Survive it, or enjoy it.
Now hold up, I hear ya. This is not a call to deny the way you feel when you receive bad news or face a hard situation. It’s not a call to berate yourself for not being positive enough on your worst day, or a call to grit your teeth and push through it while repeating “it’s fine” with a wild look in your eye. Life is full of ups and downs and inbetweens that drag your emotions all around.
Feel that stuff - it’s how you know you’re alive with fire inside your bones.
But don’t stop there.
Take yourself, in all of life, with all that you are thinking and feeling before all that is True, and commit yourself to Reality.
- God is writing your story - and he’s the universe’s best author.
- God’s bank account will never run dry. You’ll always have exactly what you need.
- God perfectly gifted you for the exact vocation he made you for (even if byway of midterms you found out it wasn’t (insert career here). (Jobs are not human-shaped by the way, you were made to be you before you were made for anything else.)
- Death is done for. FOMO is over. You have infinite time, and every goodbye is a “see you in the future.”
- Your worst day will feel light and momentary 10,000 years from now if you even remember it at all.
- God will work even that out for good.
- You are God’s kid.
This day, with all of its ups and downs, is the day the Lord has made.
“Enjoy it.”
Check out Turk's relentless joy and fun story at his channel, Hangtime.