Monday, Monday

Happy Monday! I normally don't look forward to Mondays because I feel so tired from the weekend, but I've had one of the most relaxing weekends and slept early last night so I'm feeling rejuvenated for this week. Today's especially special because there's a UCLA career fair in a few hours where they give us free stuff and one of my coworkers brought homemade chile rellenos to work. :)

I'm finally getting used to the daily grind of work. It's not as stressful anymore and I even find it enjoyable to be here. It's great not being the newbie anymore. We've been getting a lot of volunteers from UCLA next door and I've been assigned to interview and assign work to them. It's been so fun getting to know these collegians and it reminds me of when I used to volunteer at the Torrance Memorial Hospital when I was a senior in high school. It makes me want to help them even more because I know how helpful it was for me. The one bad thing is that I accept almost everyone I interview and now we have over twelve volunteers. Oops...They're all just too cute and sweet. :) 

Something that I've been hashing through recently: What it means to fight for joy.
I've heard this phrase thrown around so many times in sermons, conversations, etc but it wasn't until I really experienced circumstances where I needed to 'fight for joy' that this phrase actually became meaningful. I can't even describe the countless times I've fought back the heaviness of discouragement or weariness. The terms "Hope in God" "Look to Jesus" were so central in our way of thinking and talking in our Christian community, yet I still struggled to foster a continuous heart of joy. Because my external circumstances were oppressing and my internal emotional condition was weary, my perspective to fight for joy was disheveled: I didn't see a purpose to even fight if I was bound to feel this way again.

After many months I came to the remarkable thought that there will never be a moment where I won't need to "fight for joy." How is this awesome...? Because fighting for this joy in Christ means constantly meditating and thinking about Jesus to the point where our thoughts and actions become shaped by God. It means being so saturated in Jesus and in the Word that all our earthly problems decrease and Christ increases. I see this in pastors at my church, in my dad, even in psalmists in the Bible. Their approach to hardships reveal much about their relationship with God-how even in the midst of tribulation, their hearts are directed towards Jesus with an overflow of praise. It's amazing to see the transformation of our thoughts about life,  emotions, burdens and cares when we are fixed upon Jesus.

I'm getting so much work done right now... Haha. Probably should go take a break now. ;)