P.O. Box 53055    
Los Angeles, CA 90053   

STANDING NEAR THE SPRINKLER

I have a little Friday tip for you today if you want to keep your Social Security checks coming, and you don't want the IRS messing with your tax records, or you don't suddenly want an oil rig pumping in your back yard or just offshore five miles from your house. My advice is for you to stay on Karen's good side.

There's a lady named Karen out there — just 43 years old — who has a kid named Robert, a degree in journalism, and who used to make a living as a TV reporter. And I'm telling you right now: you don't want to mess with Karen Hughes. Because back in 1994, she got a job working for a fledgling politician named George. He was only running for governor of his state, and Karen — always interested in politics — signed up to help with the campaign. "We knew each other when our definition of a motorcade was one car," her new boss joked some time after that.

Well, the motorcade's a bit longer now, because six years later, her boss jumped from the State House in Texas to the White House in Washington, D.C. And today, Karen Hughes, this 43-year-old mom who still helps her son with his homework, is counselor to the President of the United States of America. She essentially ghostwrote his campaign autobiography, A Charge to Keep. She's a powerful third part of the so-called "Iron Triangle," along with Joe Albaugh and Karl Rove, also big players today at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. And believe me, if she wants a boulder moved out of George W. Bush's way, just a word or a fax or an e-mail, and that thing is gone. Mrs. Karen Hughes, 43 years old, has just about all the power in the world.

And why does she have so much power today? The answer is very simple. She has power because she's close to the person who has all the power. When you're just one step away from POTUS — President of the United States of America — his power becomes yours. You share in his perks, his prestige, and, for sure, his power. People close to the power get a share of it themselves.

We chose this illustration of proximity for a reason. All this week, we've been studying together the concept of joy. MADE FOR JOY; that's been our title, and we find in the Word of God that you and I, friend, were designed by God for happiness. He has always intended our happiness. What He made for us in Eden, He had in His blueprint as a permanent thing. Without the entrance of sin into this world, it would have been nothing but joy, joy, and more joy. The Bible is full of promises and statements about this; one of the best is in Ecclesiastes 5:

"When God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work — this is a gift of God."

And I just love some of the great, classic quotes about joy that have come our way this week as we've studied together. Listen to this one, which is an old Gaelic prayer:

"As the hand is made for holding and the eye for seeing, Thou has fashioned me for joy. Share with me the vision that shall find it everywhere: in the wild violet's beauty; in the lark's melody; in the face of a steadfast man; in a child's smile; in a mother's love; in the purity of Jesus."

Isn't that beautiful? And these six words tell it all: "Thou has FASHIONED me for joy." God has never intended — not once, ever — that heartache and frustration should be our lot in life. Every bad thing to curse this sin-soaked world has been because Lucifer crashed the party with his alternate plan. Writer Sherwood Wirt points out that —

"The Bible is a book of joy. There are 542 references to joy in the Bible. The gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ is a passport to joy. The secret of Jesus was — and is — His inner joy."

But now to the idea of Karen Hughes and the good things that come from riding in the same limousines as President George W. Bush. We already used this line, but let me borrow it again from Leon Bly:

"Joy is the most infallible sign of the presence of God."

Notice: joy is a sign of God's presence. Let me put it another way: if you want to have joy, you need to get IN the presence of God. Be where He is. Stand in His shadow. Stay close to Him. Because God's presence IS joy.

I mentioned the other day the idea of "good infection," which is a metaphor made popular by the Christian writer, C. S. Lewis. In his great book, Mere Christianity, he tells us what he means. And keep in mind as I share this the idea of riding with the President in that big blue armored car.

"Good things as well as bad, you know, are caught by a kind of infection," Lewis writes. "If you want to get warm you must stand near the fire: if you want to be wet you must get into the water. If you want JOY" — notice: if you want JOY — "power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them."

Let me ask again: how did Karen Hughes get power? From her TV reporting? Because she has a B.A. degree from SMU, and graduated with honors? Because her dad was a major general in the U.S. army and was the last governor of the Panama Canal Zone? No! She has power by being close to President Bush, by standing in his shadow, by being in the inner circle of HIS power. And you and I get joy by drawing ever closer to the ultimate source of joy, which is Jesus. Here's just a bit more of that paragraph by C. S. Lewis:

"[Joy, peace, eternal life, etc.] are not a sort of prize which God could, if He chose, just hand out to anyone. They are a great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the very center of reality. If you are close to it, the spray will wet you: if you are not, you will remain dry. Once a man is united to God, how could he not live forever? Once a man is separated from God, what can he do but wither and die?"

Have you ever stayed in a motel right near Niagara Falls? You don't get wet if you're in the motel room, in the bed, with the covers pulled up around your head. But you go and stand next to the railing overlooking those 194,940 gallons of water rushing past you every minute of every day of every year . . . and friend, you'll get some spray in your face. You'll experience Niagara for sure out there close to the wet-and-watery power.

A clergy friend of mind had a lady call him a few months ago. "Pastor, I'm desperate," she told him. "My life is a mess. I really need God in my life." Well, he was glad to hear of her spiritual interest, of course. "Great!" he said. "Come to church this weekend and let's talk. We'd love to be a part of your spiritual journey, and help you to reconnect with the Savior." Well, that weekend she didn't show. So he called her. "Oh, I'm really sorry," she said. "I got tied up. But next weekend for sure." The time for church rolled around . . . she wasn't there. Five weekends in a row, she made all the promises and looked up eagerly at the stars. "I really need God in my life. Yes, I do." But when it came time to go out to where the spray of God's joy was hitting His children in the face, where people were praying and singing and studying and digging into the Bible, she refused to go to that place. And the blessings of joy eluded her.

Listen, friend. If you want power, then send in your application to President Bush's chief of staff and hope they hire you. But if you want to experience joy in your life, then you need to get with Jesus, and stay with Jesus. Because even if trials come, and pains intrude their way into your life, a man or woman who has Jesus Christ can be joy-filled despite the temporary hurts down here. The Bible tells us that the arrival of Jesus to this world — and, of course, into your life and mine — means absolute joy. Here's Luke 2:10:

"But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of GREAT JOY that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord.'"

And here at the close of time, as Jesus is soon to return to us, the Word of God guarantees us joy again. Listen to this from John 16:22:

"Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will REJOICE, and NO ONE WILL TAKE AWAY YOUR JOY."

Yes, friend, this is what the Christian has who gets close to Jesus. Karen Hughes may have the power; that's fine. You and I can have the spray in our face, the pure joy, that comes from having Jesus. As Augustine once observed — and it's still true these many centuries later:

"The Christian should be an alleluia from head to foot."