Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not treat prophecies with contempt but test them all; hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil. May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24
Bubbles, Pink Face, and Smiley are all names I've been called at earlier times in my life because of my perma-grin and tendency to laugh a lot. It may have also contributed to questions about my intelligence. But, I always preferred to be the person who laughed so hard that I wet my pants than the mopey girl shuffling the halls with a constant complaint. I want to be life-giving, not a life suck. But, sometimes life sucks and I find myself in a place where I do not have a whole lot to give.
Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7
This is such good news, that He cares for ME and that His care is why I can cast my burdens/anxieties/cares into His strong, steady, and capable hands. I don't have permission because my particular burdens are unique or the most appalling or win the award for most sympathetic or because they are the heaviest of anyone around as if my need were the greatest. Nope, other people have worse burdens, more heart pounding anxieties, more life threatening dangers, more painful troubles, more chronic pain, more costly cares, and more heart breaking stories. But God didn't ask me to submit an application for His care as if I had to earn it or deserve it or my burden/anxiety/care had to qualify within certain parameters. He said for me to take the weights off my heart and let him have them simply because He cares for me.
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Matthew 11:28-29
This is something to rejoice over, to give thanks to him for doing, to look to the Spirit for the exchange, and to keep me praying continually. The places he has taken me, the work he has given me, the labor he invites me to share with him in doing, does not condemn me in my weakness and weariness and inability but invites me to trust completely and rest deeply in His strength. "The one who calls you is faithful and He will do it!"
being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6
So once again, His grace compels me not so much to be bubbly and smiley or pink-faced in laughter, but to rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances remembering that:
For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard-pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 2 Corinthians 4:6-10