Francis Chan’s Daily Fight for Joy

From Gospel Translations

Audio Transcript

We are blessed to be joined this week on the Ask Pastor John podcast by a guest and our friend, Francis Chan, who joins us from San Francisco. Francis and his wife Lisa are the authors of the new book, You and Me Forever: Marriage in Light of Eternity. And we will get to marriage questions soon enough, but first I want to ask you, Francis, about fighting for joy in Christ every day. Is this a struggle for you? Does Francis Chan fight for joy in Christ?

Yes. Absolutely. I have to fight for joy every day. For me it is a real fight for my mind. But lately the battle has been multi-tasking because I love to accomplish. I love to get a lot of things done in one day. And I figure, why do one thing when you can do three? So you are just going and it is all for the kingdom and everything, but then it comes time to pray and this is where multi-tasking can kill you is you mind is used to doing several things at once and if you are trying to do three things at once, you really can’t worship him wholeheartedly.

First Peter 4:7 talks about being clear minded for the purpose of prayer and to be self-controlled and sober minded, clear minded. And my fight is those times where I just want to get away from everything and to rejoice in the Lord. I mean genuinely just to come into the presence of God and not have my mind wander. Sometimes I am pacing. Sometimes I am praying out loud.

Sometimes I am singing out loud. Sometimes I am on my knees, sometimes doing all three or four of those things just so that my mind doesn’t switch to something else. I am just 100 percent focused on God, thanking him for everything I have in Christ. I mean, life is good. Our existence is good. We are so blessed, but to focus on that and to really rejoice in that is a real fight. I built a little room in my garage, a tiny room. It is more like a closet or something just so that I can escape and get alone and worship him and thank him and tell him how great it is to know him and restore that joy in my life.

I don’t know how other people get charged up, but for me it is really coming into the presence of God and enjoying him. That is a type of joy that lasts. Like if I can get that time and really be focused in the morning it really does just go throughout the whole day.