I was listening to a book that brought up a conversation someone had with the late Vance Havner, a Southern Baptist minister and evangelist. Vance asked how they were doing and they responded with something like “I’m doing well under the circumstances.”

Vance responded with “Well, what are you doing under the circumstances?”

Basically, believers shouldn’t live under the circumstances as if they dictated or controlled our lives. We should be above our circumstances. We serve a God who is outside of time and is in control of every iota of our lives.

That’s the difference between happiness and joy. Happiness is circumstantial and depends a lot on what happens to me, as in how my day is going, what kind of mood I’m in, if I got enough sleep, etc. Joy is joy no matter what. Joy is also a choice that I can make every single day.

Living above the circumstances is keeping my eyes fixed on Jesus not my obstacles. It’s running toward the prize of the upward calling instead of being all over the place trying to put out a million fires or multitasking everything at once. It comes from a place of peace of knowing that the outcome is already assured.

I want to live above my circumstances because I know my circumstances will change as surely as the weather. I want to be so led by the Spirit that I am unfazed by any outward chaos, just as Jesus was able to sleep on the boat in the middle of a storm.

May each of us choose today to live above our circumstances and not under them.