“Something to Smile About” 

Dear Faith Family, 

A glad heart makes a cheerful face, but by sorrow of heart the spirit is crushed, (Proverbs 15:13). 

With a scoop in her right fist and a spatula in her left, she planted both firmly on the counter between us.  Weapons now at ready, her contagious smile stretched clear across the counter and lit up the whole room!  Simultaneously one word pierced the air: “Hi!”  The kind of emphatic, happy “hi” that was larger than its one syllable.  It said, “I’m glad you’re here.  I’m glad I’m here.  How can I help?” 

I pointed to the ice cream in the freezer case below.  Vanilla ice cream with Mini Reese’s Pieces in a waffle cone, please.  That’s a mouthful, literally!  It was scrumpdillyicious!  But it didn’t compare.  The “hi”, the attitude, and the contagious smile far surpassed the short-lived scrumpdillyiciousness of that vanilla ice cream, those colorful Mini Reese’s Pieces, or that calorie free waffle cone. 

So, I got to thinking.  What’s the value of a smile and a cheerful attitude?  At this point I’d certainly place its value above an ice cream cone.   

Maybe the young lady serving up the ice cream was having a good day.  Maybe she just received a raise.  Maybe she just got engaged.  I don’t know. 

This much I do know: if your cheerful attitude and even your smile is circumstantial, it will also be superficial.  The answer isn’t a make-believe smile or a pretend happy.  You know, the kind that social media appears to promote. 

What then?  Greet one another with an attitude without gratitude?  When the circumstances are less than ideal.  When your team loses.  When your friend moves away.  When your teacher obviously underlooked the level of your intelligence.  What then?  Is there anything else that can stir up that gladness?  Can the gladness of Proverbs still ooze out of our being? 

Yes!  It can!  Not the flighty, insincere circumstantial happiness.  But the gladness that is rooted deeply in reality.  This gladness is found in none other than the Lord, Himself.  I have set the Lord always before me; because He is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.  Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure, (Psalm 16:8-9). 

So, I guess the question awaits: how’s your heart?  Maybe the heart needs a recharge?  A reminder of what it means to be a child of God?  Not that we don’t grieve loss.  But that we grieve with hope.  Not that we don’t wrestle with the stuff of this world.  But that we aren’t ruled by the stuff of this world.  Not that life isn’t challenging.  But that we don’t do life alone, or in our own strength for that matter.  Now that’s something to smile about! 

Learning how to smile, 
Pastor Karl