A Leader I know says often, “Doors can be opened for you, but no one can make you walk through one.”

It’s a law of initiative.

The greatest gift of your life could be on the other side of a wall – through a door – just out of sight.

I guess you could argue courage is needed to walk into something new. You could even argue trust is needed. But, both courage and trust are conceptual. They don’t make your feet move.

You need initiative. I look at initiative as a combination of strength + desire. I CAN physically walk through that door – my feet work. AND, I WANT to walk through the door. I desire the adventure.

This is an easy concept when I apply it to general adulthood – but what about in my spirit. How do I have initiative in the area of my soul?

I think most of us fall into 2 categories of the soul.

1. Joy
2. No Joy.

That’s not what you thought I was going to say, is it?

Joy.

It’s is a deciding factor to the health of a soul. See, circumstances change constantly.

I think most of us decide the health of our soul based on how we feel about what surrounds us. Especially when life is hard . . .

BUT, YOU HAVE NO CONTROL OVER YOUR CIRCUMSTANCE. Trying to control life is like running on a treadmill – expecting to get somewhere. You just get tired – but you are still exactly where you were before you started running.

Life is like that when we are too focused on our circumstance. There are times I feel like I am using EVERY OUNCE of my energy to make life better, but I make no progress – I just get tired.

What we need is initiative – not to change where we are. We need initiative to TAKE JOY.

There is a prophet in the Bible named Habakkuk. Not a ton is known about him, but the questions he asks make me feel like he and I would have had a lot to talk about.

EX: When you believe that God is good, but face life that seems bad – what do you do?

Life is made up of a series of open doors and windows and brick walls and treadmills.

Habakkuk suggests that there is a deciding factor in how we face life of all kinds:

Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
(Habakkuk 3:17-18)

When life’s circumstances are unfortunate – when life is too hard, and I’m hungry and don’t see the hope . . .  YET . . . THEN . . . I will rejoice – I WILL TAKE JOY.

The deciding factor is JOY.

Joy is a gift to receive – but it’s more than that.

WE HAVE TO TAKE IT.

CLAIM IT.

SPEAK IT INTO OUR SOULS.

Joy is unnatural in difficulty, but its presence draws a healthy soul from a dying one.

TAKE is kind of an ugly word. But, life is ugly at times, isn’t it? It doesn’t flow right. It doesn’t FEEL right.

But JOY will always be the solution. Take it. Claim it. Speak it into your soul.

Initiative is Strength + Desire . . . TAKE JOY.

My lips will shout for joy when I sing praise to you— I whom you have delivered. – Psalm 71:23

To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen – Jude 1:2-5