Joyce Meyer - Press Into A New Beginning

Alright, well, I'm gonna do a series this weekend called, "Pressing in and pressing on". You didn't clap, but I didn't expect you to. I started to call it, "Gliding in and gliding on," because I think we'd rather glide than press. And this is not any accusation against any one person, but people just don't seem to have the tenacity that they used to have. And I think it's because life has just become so automated, and in some ways it's harder but it many ways it's easier. I mean, what we used to have to do to make a phone call, is amazing to what you do now. I mean, when I first started studying the word and teaching, I mean, it was quite a job to put together one message to teach because you couldn't just get on the internet and say, "Give me all the scriptures on sin". You had to have a concordance and you had to have this and you need to have something else. I mean, I would have books all around me and study sometimes seven hours for one message.

And so, yeah, we all like things easy, but when things are too easy, to be honest, then it ends up not being good for us because there's always gonna be times in your life when things are not going to be easy and you're either gonna give up or you're gonna have to do a little bit of pressing. And pressing really just means to press against your pressure. It means the enemy's coming against you, and instead of you just letting it defeat you, you say, "No way. I know what God's word says, and whatever he told me I can have, I will have it in Jesus' name. I will not quit. I will not give up".

Now, I would imagine that there are people here... I just kinda got this in my heart right before I came out. I think there's some people here and you just feel like it has been so long since God has done anything in your life. Anybody? You've just been waiting, and waiting, and waiting and you just don't feel like he's changing you. You don't feel like he's changing your circumstances. And I just want to tell you that as long as you are believing, God is working. Did you hear me? As long as you're believing, God is working. And just because you don't see anything or feel anything that does not mean that God is not doing anything, amen?

And so, just don't get discouraged and throw in the towel. If anybody is at the point of just wanting to give up, maybe you came tonight and you said, "God, I gotta have a word. You gotta speak to me through Joyce, or I'm just gonna give up". Well, I'm telling you that God says, "Do not give up," amen? God is working. And you know, when I'm waiting on something, and we all have thing, how many of you are waiting on something? I mean, we all have things that we're waiting on whether it's healing, or breakthrough, or for our ministries to grow, or to get married, or not to be married, or you know... Whatever the case might be. To have kids, to get your kids out of the house. You know, kids used to leave soon as they were 18, they were out and on their own.

Now, they're still there when they're 40, sometimes. And you gotta pray 'em out of the house. So, whatever it is that you're waiting on, if you don't quit, God will either give you what you've asked for or something much better. I want you to get that before I go on. 'cause I don't want you to leave here, I mean, I've given up a million times, but the thing is, is God really won't let you give up. He'll pick you back up and get you going. So, we're gonna have to press into things and through things and it's a principle that we have to understand. A little baby eaglet, in the shell, has got a little tooth on the end of its beak. They don't have that when they're adults, but they've got this little tooth on the end of their beak. And when it's time for them to be born they peck, peck, and peck, and peck, and peck.

I mean, it seems like they're pecking like, forever, trying to break this shell. And occasionally, somebody will think they need to help 'em, break it open for 'em. But if you do that, what happens is they become weak and they never become what God intended them to be because that work, that pecking, that pressing to come into life is what helps them get through life later on. So, be careful about making it too easy on your kids because sometimes they need to go through a few things, so they're ready to go through some of the things they'll have to go through later on when life really gets hard. Now, wishing does nothing for us. "Well, I just wish...", well, that wishing does nothing for us. We have to press. Wine is made by putting grapes through a press, and wine often represents power in the Bible. For example, "New wine cannot be put into old wineskins," basically, means new power cannot be given to someone who is still hanging on to old ways. Amen?

Hey, you got a great future. You have a great future. Your history is not your destiny. You have a great future, but you will miss it if you keep hanging on to the past. And so, we're gonna talk some tonight, about new beginnings. But first, I just gotta do this little introduction to this pressing thing because if you don't understand that it's not all going to be easy and that sometimes you're gonna have to wait and sometimes you're gonna need to press through things. And, that doesn't mean that God doesn't give us grace. But grace doesn't mean that God does everything for us, while we sit around and do nothing. Amen? By grace through faith, are you saved. Well, God's grace is there for everyone but not everyone is saved because not everyone will believe. Be it unto you, even as you believe. God always gives us a part. We're partners with God.

Just imagine really, just imagine how boring life would be if you could just sit back and just do nothing, but say a prayer and God just did everything for you and you never really had to do anything. God wants us to partner with him in seeing the things come to pass that he's provided for us. The past is like a magnet, it keeps trying to draw us back. Do you ever feel like the enemy is trying to draw you back into old habits, amen? Not only do you have to press out of bad things, you gotta press into good things. We'll take peace as an example.

I grew up in an atmosphere where there was no peace. To be honest, and I'm not exaggerating, I didn't even know what peace was until I married Dave. Everybody in my family was dysfunctional. We didn't know that word back then but they were dysfunctional. Very dysfunctional. And of course, my father was abusing me. My mother knew it, was too frightened to do anything about it. My brother went in the marines when he was 17, and he came out addicted to drugs, and ultimately, ended up ending his own life because he just was so miserable and couldn't seem to get free. And he was a guy that wouldn't press. He wouldn't press through things. He wanted everybody to do everything for him. We took him into our home, he lived with us, I think about four years one time. And as long as you said, "Get up and go to work," he'd get up and go to work, but if you didn't wake him up he'd lay there and not go to work. And you gotta do stuff for yourself.

Don't even always be calling everybody asking them where a certain scripture is, look it up. Do the work. If you do the work then you'll remember where things are. So, you're never gonna have the future that God wants you to have if you think that all you gotta do is just pray for it, and it's just gonna fall in your lap. Some of you have got some amazing things out in front of you. But I can tell you, the greater that God wants to use you, the more the enemy will come against you. I have a little thing that I say, "New level, new devil". See, some of you are asking God for more of something. Well, when you ask for more blessing, you're probably gonna get more opposition.

I felt like God spoke to me the other morning and said, "I want you to be extra careful about your words because I'm gonna open a wide door of opportunity and with it will come many adversaries". See, you don't just get opportunity, you also get adversaries. And so, when God wants to bring us up higher, our flesh has to go down lower. And see, I feel like I'm already pretty careful with my words, but obviously, not careful enough. And you see, the greater God is using you, the more he blesses you, the more accountable we need to be. I don't suppose any of you could use any help with your mouth, huh? Matthew 7:13 and 14 are a couple of really great scriptures that says, "Enter through the narrow gate: for wide is the gate and spacious and broad is the way that leads away to destruction, and many are those who are entering through it".

I want us to take enough time to understand this. He says, "I want you to go through the narrow gate," and you're gonna see in the next verse, it says, "But the narrow gate is contracted by pressure". That's the amplified translation. "And the way is straitened and compressed that leads away to life, and few there are who find it". So, it's easy to stay on the broad path. God told me once, "On the broad path there's room for all your fleshly baggage. You can just take it all with you". You can just be carnal and walk on the broad path. A lot of times people still get into heaven. You get into heaven because you believe not because you do everything perfect. And we will never do everything perfect. But, I do believe that when a Christian remains carnal all of their life, even though they may end up in heaven, they will never take anybody with 'em.

How many of you know what I mean by that? Their witness won't be strong enough to take anybody with 'em. And they're not gonna enjoy life here. Because you know what? We can't enjoy life and walk in the flesh. We really don't. Our flesh tries to lie to us and tell us that we're gonna enjoy it more, if we do what we feel like doing, but the truth is we're not gonna enjoy it more if we follow our feelings, it's gonna lead us into a place of destruction. And, probably, more than anything, people tell me how they feel. "Well, I feel like nobody loves me". Well, God's already said he loves you hundreds and hundreds of times. So, how 'bout starting with that? "God loves me". I don't listen to how I feel. I live on the other side of my feelings.

So, he tells us if you want to be on that narrow path, you're gonna have to do a little bit of pressing. And how 'bout the woman who'd been bleeding 18 years? And she'd spent all that she had on doctors and was no better and she pressed in past the crowd. Let's think about that for a minute. I just close my eyes, and I thought about this woman. I thought about the crowd. And I'm sure it was immense and people were tightly packed around Jesus. And for some reason... I doubt that this woman was like very large. I just picture her as a small woman that's been sick for a long time. And well, how easy it would have been to have just thought, "Well, I never get through that crowd".

See, some people give up in their mind before they ever even try to see if they can do it. Don't just look at something hard and say, "Well, I could never do that". No, you look at something hard and you say, "If God wants me to do that, 'i can do all things through Christ who is my strength.'" and we love that scripture, and we clap for it but listen to what it really says, "I can do all things through Christ who gives me the strength". He gives us the ability but we're gonna do the doing. Now, I wanna be clear. I'm not talkin' about getting into works of the flesh. I'm not talking about trying to make things happen in your own flesh. Don't try to do anything without God. You need God's grace on everything that you do in order for it to work, but don't expect that to be all that you need. Because God will ask you to do or not to do certain things. And, it's very important that we are obedient to him whether it's easy or whether it's not. Amen?

Alright, now, I want to make a statement, and I'll make it probably, a few times throughout this weekend. But, here's the hard part, but if you can get this through your head and make a commitment to do it, wow, are you gonna ever be successful. You have to start doing what's right when it still feels wrong. Amen? How many of you are golfers, you play golf? Dave, get your hand up, don't... Well, there aren't very many of you, some of you are pretty smart. But, Dave's a major golfer. I actually, played golf with him for 20 years and then I got a tendonitis in my elbow, and I couldn't. And it's very time-consuming game and I was writing by then and just didn't have the time, but the golf swing is the most awkward thing in the world. You would never think that you have to get in that position to get a ball to go straight. I could not believe, when Dave was trying to teach me how to play golf, that I could ever be in that position, in that crazy position and hit the ball straight.

Well, that's kinda what it feels like, when you make a decision to do something right... Well, it just feels wrong. It's like, "Why should I be nice to that person after the way they've treated me? You what? What God? This guy left my church and took 20 families with him and you want me to buy him a new sound system? What? That can't be right"? But see, God kinda offers us an upside-down kingdom that actually, sets us right-side up. "The first will be last, the last will be first". If you want more, you gotta give away some of what you got. I mean, to be honest, God's arithmetic is rather... well... it works, but I won't say any more. Press past the pain of feelings and do what you know you should do even while you're hurting. I'mma say it again. You can't wait till you feel like doing what's right.

See, I wonder how many people that are in here tonight, and you're mad at somebody? I'm not gonna have you raise your hands 'cause I already know what the percentage would be. I've done it too many times. It would be about 70 to 80%. And you came here, you want a miracle. You want a healing. You want to breakthrough. You want to be in ministry. You want to be promoted on your job. But just this one thing, "Forgive that person. Let it go. Leave it. Put it in my hands, let me be your recompense. Let me bring you a reward".

Let me tell you something, if you will stop being offended about everything and forgive people, you will be amazed at what God will be able to do in your life. You may have a reason to be mad, but no right to be mad. Because if you wanna get right down to it, God's got a reason to be mad at everyone of us. And yet, he's not. He shows us mercy again, and again, and again, and again. "But, it's so hard. You don't know what they did to me. Surely, God can't expect me to forgive them". Well, yes, he does. It's all over the Bible. And actually, our prayers cannot get answered. You're just wasting your time. If you're gonna go to God and pray while you're mad at somebody. I mean, it's in the Bible. God says he'll answer prayer and if you have anything against anyone, leave it, drop it, let it go.

See, we can't just pick the versus out that we like. I mean, you can make the Bible say anything if you just go around and pick and choose what you like and stick it together. We gotta read the whole book, right? The whole thing. I'll tell ya, and I'm not saying this out of self-pity or, "Please, feel sorry for me," but you have no idea what it's cost, and I'm not talking about money. Now, that's a lot too. But you have no idea what it's cost me to get from where I was to where I am. Even the healing of my broken soul, I'm telling you what, I had such rebellion in me toward men. And when God started telling me I needed to be a submissive wife, I'm gonna tell you what, mmm... Whoo! I mean, it came out, you know? The Bible says that trials bring out patience. Well, they brought a lot of stuff oughta me before we got around to any patience. Amen?

Come on, how many of you ladies aren't just getting an a+ in the submission thing? But see? We think that's okay. "Eh, it's a new age". And, you know, I'm not talkin' about letting somebody walk all over you. I'm even just being submissive to authority period. I'll tell you what, if you're desperate for change in your life, I mean, you'll get serious about this. I was talking about peace earlier, and I didn't even know what peace was until I married Dave. And after watching him be stable and constant for a few years, I thought, "I want that". I don't want to be up and down, and every time my circumstance changed, I'm, you know, gettin' mad all the time, and throwing fits, and I mean... I wanted peace.

Well, I prayed for peace. "Oh, God, give me peace. Give me peace. Give me peace," and nothing changed. You know why? Because Jesus said, "I leave you my peace. Now, stop allowing yourselves to get upset and disturbed". So, he's already given us what we need, we have to activate it and call on it. And it took me a few years, but I got determined that I was gonna live in peace. And so, the first thing I started doing was paying attention to what upset me. I had to kind of back into my problem. Because you know, sometimes, you're just mad and you're angry before you even really know what's happening. And so, you maybe, have to kinda back into it and say, "What's the root of this problem? What's going on"?

See, I believe some people just because they're grieving over something they lost 20 years ago, it comes out of them in anger. We have to learn how to let go of the things that are behind and let God bring us into new beginnings. God has got a new beginning for every single one of you. You can begin again. You're not at a dead end. It's not over for you. You're not too old. Come on, don't give me that old stuff. I'm gonna be 76 in two months and I'm still up here. So... I mean, yeah, there's a few things that don't work like they used to. You know, I'm getting a little help in the meetings. I used to do everything myself, but I've just said, "Whatever I got, God, you're gonna get it". Amen? So, don't tell me you're too old to do something. "I got too many kids". I started the ministry when I had three teenagers and a baby. Quit looking at your circumstances and say, "Well, that's impossible. That's too hard". All things are possible with God. Amen?

I'm gonna read a little list here of things that we may have to press through: rejection, betrayal, abandonment, unforgiveness, offense, self-pity, wanting to take revenge... Hard times and trials, trouble you don't feel like you deserve, self-centeredness, jealousy, the desire to give up, discouragement, disappointment with people, disappointment with God, and people-pleasing. How many of you had more than three? Okay, I got a confession. I looked at the list and I had 15 out of 16. That doesn't mean I have them all now. Thank God, I've gotten through some of them. But every single one of those things, I've had to majorly confront in my life and not let them take me out.

Now, I know you want to know which one I didn't have. And you won't be able to sleep good tonight, if I don't tell you so... The only one of these I did not have was disappointment with God. I don't know why, but for some reason I never blamed God for any of my problems. And I'm glad that I didn't because I didn't have too many friends and I really needed him. You know, some people, the first thing they do when things don't go right is they get mad at God. God is not causing our problems, he is the answer to our problems. What I really wanna get across to you tonight is it's time to press into a new beginning. And, some of you need a new beginning, right now. How many of you need a new beginning right now? Okay. Well, gee, that's the whole crowd. I don't even have to say the other thing I was gonna say.

You know, you may need a new beginning in getting out of debt. Maybe you've tried before and it's just a problem for you. You just keep spending money, you really shouldn't be spending. Maybe you need a new beginning with a bad attitude. You have a bad attitude. No? Nobody here with a bad attitude, okay. I'll try somethin' else. Maybe you're the one that needs to forgive somebody, maybe. If not, you can try to buy this teaching for somebody else. Maybe you need a new beginning in eating better. People look at me and say, "At your age, how can you be in that good of shape and be so little". Well, I don't eat everything I want and I workout 3 days a week. And for a long time, I walked five miles a day until I started having trouble with my feet and I can't do that anymore, so I'll just find some other way to get the devil. Amen?

I got... Yeah, well, you don't need to know what I got. I got plantar fasciitis and then I got that taken care of and then I got some kinda tendonitis. You know, there's just stuff all over your body and it all wants to get some kind of an itis. I mean, there's so many itises it's not even funny. Colonitis, and bursitis, and anyway... we all need new beginnings all the time. You know, we get started and we're going good for a while. Maybe you need a new beginning in your prayer life. Maybe you need a new beginning in Bible study. Maybe you need a new beginning in regular giving? I don't know how this message couldn't be for everybody in some way, shape, or form.

Okay, Paul said, "That I may know him and the power of his resurrection," Philippians 3:10-14. "And may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death". So, the apostle Paul is telling us right there that if we wanna become like Jesus, we're gonna have to share some of his sufferings. And that's not a curse word, it's a Bible word. "That by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I've already obtained this or am already made perfect, but i"... What? Huh, "Press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own". In essence, he's saying, "If I think about what Jesus did for me, what he went through for me..." come on. "Then I am determined that I am gonna press through whatever I have to press through, and be the person that Jesus died for me to be". Amen? "Brothers, I don't consider that I've made it my own. But one thing I do," what a statement. One thing I do, it is my one aspiration, it is the most important thing to me, "Letting go of what lies behind and straining," see it? "Straining forward to what lies ahead".

Now, I don't know if this is a happy message, right now, tonight or not. But I do know this. The people who come to hear me teach, I am not gonna feed you dessert every time you come. I'm sorry, but I'm just not. God loves you. You're sweet. You got a great future. There's a miracle right around the corner for you. Oh, I can turn it on, man. I could get you up on your feet screamin' and yellin' and I could go out of here feeling like, so, on top of the world. But I've got a job to do. And I'm gonna be accountable to God for doing it. And I believe that the job that God has given me is to help his people mature. Amen?

We love to see people get saved. But I don't want to see you get saved and then just be a carnal believer all your life. I mean, Christians should be happy. We should be infectious. People should just want what we've got. They should wanna just be around us. There needs to be something different about us. We're not supposed to be like everybody else, and be like the world. We're anointed for hard stuff. Did you hear me? We are anointed for hard things. We don't need to glide into everything in life. A challenge really should just make us go, "Alright bring it on". Come on, you know, we'll feel much better about ourselves if we get a little stirred up and press through things and just this, "Lazy me, oh..."

Isaiah 61 in verse 3 says that God gives us, "The oil of gladness for mourning and the garment of praise instead of a faint or a heavy spirit". Jesus wants us to have... Now, I yellowed this in, so this is important. Jesus wants us to have a present expectation of something positive instead of constantly mourning over what we've lost. You can find something to mourn over daily if you want to, it's not that difficult. All you gotta do is sit around and remember all the bad things that have happened to you in your life and forget all the good. You know, everybody in here, you've had more good things happen to you than bad. Everybody, you've had more good things happen to you than bad. We talk about hope, and I was amazed to find out, when I really did a thorough study on hope, that hope is not just, "Well, I hope... You know, I hope so". No, Bible hope, and Peter says we've, "Been born again into an ever-living hope".

So, guess what? Hope is something you could always have. No matter what kinda problem or circumstance you've got, you can always have hope. But it's not just, "Well, I kinda wish God would do something". No, hope is a positive expectation that something good is gonna happen to you at any moment. What happens if you start getting up with that expectation? "I can't wait to see what God does today. Boy, I bet today's gonna be good. All things are possible with God. There's no telling what he may do for me because he loves me". Not get up and the first thing the devil does is remind you of everything you've ever done wrong in your life. Won't even hardly pray and ask God for anything because you've been so bad. Well, so has everybody else. Look at the possibilities that future holds instead of the past with all of its disappointments.

Now, Jesus said he came to give us joy. "The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy". We have an enemy, the devil. We need to start knowing who our real enemy is. Your battles belong to God. But that doesn't mean that he's gonna do everything for you. People get so excited when you preach out of those scriptures in Chronicles that talk about how the battle belongs to God. "You'll not need to fight in this battle. You won't see this enemy anymore. The battle belongs to the Lord". And people just get wild, just wild. But you know what? There's always gonna be something that God is gonna tell you to do. He told Jehoshaphat, "Go and take your place". And his place was actually, a place of worship.

And so, sometimes, if you got problems instead of telling everybody about 'em, you need to just worship. Just worship till you get a breakthrough. Mourning is defined as, "To feel grief or sorrow, to feel sad over something that did or did not happen". Jesus said, "The thief comes only to kill, steal, and destroy, but I came that you might have and enjoy life and have it in abundance, to the full until it over flows". I want to be a happy Christian. Amen?

Now, I found this very interesting. In the old covenant, God put a limit on how long people could mourn when someone died. In Deuteronomy 34:7 and 8, says, "Moses was 120 years old when he died. His eye was undimmed, and his vigor unabated". So, he was still strong, still going. He didn't have to wear glasses, I guess, his eyes were undimmed. I'll tell ya... I was trying to look at a menu in the car today, to the restaurant where we're going to, and I sat there and pretended like I could see it for five minutes. I mean, I kept trying every which way to see it. And, I finally, thought, "Why don't I just get out my glasses. I know I can't see without 'em". Without them or contacts, one of the two, so... When your arms are no longer long enough, that's when you gotta get the glasses. But, his eye was undimmed and he was still strong. "And the people of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of moab 30 days. Then the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended".

Now, you gotta realize how important Moses was to these people, he did their praying, he did their confessing. I mean, when they would act like just ridiculous little kids, Moses would pray through and get God to continue blessing 'em. And he led them out of Egypt and through the wilderness and through the Red Sea. And so, even though they grumbled and complained about Moses all the time, I'm sure they also loved him and really depended on him. And now, he had died. And so, they didn't know, "What, what, what"? They weren't in the Promised Land yet. I just thought about it today, I wonder what they thought. "Well, I guess we'll never make it now".

But see, here's the good thing. God is never without a plan. And they didn't know yet, what God's plan was, but he already planned to have Joshua take them in to the promise land. I said, "God has always got a plan". He's always got a plan. And just because you or I don't know what the plan is that doesn't mean that God doesn't know what it is. I heard one person shout back there, so I'm gonna shout with ya. They had mourned him 30 days and the time of mourning was over. Now, I'm not trying to be ridiculous. If you've lost somebody that you love, I'm not saying that you gotta get over it in 30 days, but there's a principle here that there's a time for grieving and mourning and then there's a time to go on with life. And that doesn't mean that you ever forget, or that you ever stop missing the person. But it does mean, if you're alive and breathing then God has still got a purpose for you. Come on.

And then, which I think is very interesting, God reminded Joshua that Moses was dead. Well, he had to know that. He'd been mourning him for 30 days. Joshua 1:1 and 2, "After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua the son of nun, Moses' assistant, 'Moses is dead.'" now, it wasn't like he was telling him something he didn't know. So, what's God up to here? He's making a point. And here's the point that he's making. "'Moses is dead. Now therefore you arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving them, to the people of Israel.'" so, he's saying, "Okay, that part of your life is over". Is anybody home? That part of your life is over. It's time now, to get up and get going again. Come on. Whatever it is.

"My husband walked out on me," a woman told me the other day, she said, "My husband cheated on me with my best friend," and she said, "I thought it was absolutely gonna kill me until I got a hold of your teaching and started realizing that I still had a life left". I was abused sexually by my dad for many, many, many years. It was bad, and I was messed up in every way that a person could be messed up. But, I'm still here and I'm still getting better and better everyday. But here's something that has to change if you wanna have the promises of God. You have to make a decision, and if you haven't made it yet, it might as well be tonight. And the decision you have to make is you're no longer gonna have a victim mentality.

Now, I love you with all my heart, if I didn't, I wouldn't be doing this. But I wanna tell ya that you can be pitiful or you can be powerful. But if you're gonna sit around with self-pity day, after day, after day because life hasn't treated you fair, then you are gonna miss out on the great things that God has for you. Everybody's equal in God. Truly everybody has equal opportunity in God because he said, "Here's my promises, if you will believe me, I will do these things". But it doesn't say how long you gotta believe. It didn't say five minutes, or three minutes, or two weeks. You may have to believe for years, and years, and years and be really steadfast, but you don't have anything better to do. I mean, do you? You might as well have some hope. It's not much fun to live without any.

I read an interesting story in a book titled, "Child of the Jungle". "A missionary and his family lived among the Fayu tribe in New Guinea. The missionary's daughter, Sabine, wrote this: 'When we first moved to the Fayu, we wondered whether they knew any songs, since we never heard them singing. This question was answered fairly quickly. We had just returned from Danau Bira,'" I'm probably just tearing all those names up but, "'and our things had once again, been stolen.'" So, every time they left, came back, the very people they were trying to minister to had stolen all their stuff. "'and as we were cataloging our losses, we heard singing from the other side of the river, and it was nakire singing in a lovely monotone.

"'"Ohhh...", he sang, "The Fayu are like birds, ohhh... They always take from the same tree. Ohhh... Such bad people. Ohhh... Poor Klausu, poor Doriso, they are so sad and wonder where all their stuff is, ohhh...", papa was delighted as it became clear to us that the Fayu simply improvised a song to match their situation. The songs only consist of three notes with which they express whatever they are feeling in the moment. It is not the most sophisticated music, but it is a sound that I quickly came to love. Their use of songs to express themselves may be one of the reasons,'"

now, I want you to listen to this. "'may be one of the reasons why the Fayu do not seem to suffer from depression or other psychological disorders. Their feelings are immediately expressed. There are even times set aside for the release of emotions, for example, the mourning song. When the song of mourning runs its course, the grieving truly is finished, and life resumes as normal. When a person experienced a traumatic event, he might lie for weeks in his hut, not saying a word but yet, singing for hours at a time. During this period, other clan members would provide him with food. Then one day, he would simply get up, come out of his tent, leave the trauma behind, cleansed of all the pain, he would smilingly resume his everyday tasks.' What if we started making up our own songs? "'ohhh... I am so miserable because my husband lost his job. And I don't know what we're gonna do. Are blessed and I seem to always have trouble, ohhh... Ohhh... When will my circumstances change? I feel like running away from it all, ohhh...'"

"After hearing me preach this at a seminar, a girl on our staff made up a song about her sinuses. And it went something like this: 'ohh... I am so tired of my sinuses being stuffed. Oh... I just want to breathe, yes, I just want to breathe with ease. It doesn't seem fair that I'm allergic to the space I live in. Ohhh... It just isn't fair...'" and you know, at first I thought, "Well, how corny"? But you know what? That's exactly what David did in the Psalms. I mean, if you go... They're songs. It says, "A song from David," or a song about this or a song about that. And most of 'em are just complaining. I don't know. Be a fool for Christ, try it. Come on, get up on your feet. Give God a big praise.