Don't Smile?

An upcoming trip out of the country required that my Passport be renewed because the country required a passport that had at least six months left to enter. When I realized this, there was not enough time to have it mailed to me, so I had to make an appointment with the Passport Office to have it renewed in time for the trip. The Passport office would not allow me to make an appointment until I was fourteen days out from my trip. A lot about this scenario seems odd to me.

So, I spent a couple of hours at a local FedEx store making sure all of the documents were complete and hard copies were made. I also had to get a new Passport picture to attach to the application. When the kind lady at FedEx was taking my picture, she said, “Oh no, you can’t smile for this picture!” First time in my life I remember someone saying don’t smile for a picture. I smiled for the rest of the day thinking about not being able to smile for the camera.

No doubt, there is a lot of mess in this life that makes it difficult to smile. Death, disease, divorce, difficulties, discouragement, disappointment, disobedience, delays, and so much more can make it difficult to smile. But my dear preaching brothers, no matter how difficult life is, there is always much to smile about. We have been saved by the blood of Jesus. We have been promised victory in eternity. We have been charged with preaching the unfathomable riches of Christ. We get to worship with and serve God’s beautiful family every week. We are blessed to see lives forever changed by the Word of God and the work of His servants. As we go about our week, my prayer is that we will be able to focus more on the aspects of life that make us smile.