Have you ever seen something that just didn’t make sense? How about finding two things that really don’t go together? Here is a list of oxymorons (incongruous expressions) that I came across. How many do you use in your everyday conversation? 

• Found Missing
• Same Difference
• Threadless Screws
• Jumbo Shrimp
• Stand Down
• Self-Help Group
• Silent Alarm
• Microsoft Works
• Plastic Glasses
• Tragic Comedy
• Exact Estimate
• Here are some phrases that really don’t go together:
• I cannot tolerate intolerance.
• I’m sorry, but I never apologize.
• Cheap is more expensive.
• 12-ounce pound cake
• Click the start button, and shut down (for you Microsoft users).
• Alone in a crowd.
• Always remember you’re unique…just like everyone else.

These phrases may sound contradictory, but there is nothing more contradicting than a grumpy Christian. Grumpy Christians are those who have lost their sense of gratitude. They have fixed their eyes on the temporal rather than the eternal. As followers of Christ, we are promised unconditional love from the Creator of the universe and an eternal hope. These two truths should override any lie of the enemy or earthly struggle we face. 

1 Peter 1:3-6 (NIV)

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.

We have a living hope and an imperishable inheritance; God’s power shields us. Knowing this, we should be the most enthusiastic people on the planet. The word “enthusiasm” comes from the Greek words en, meaning within or in, and Theos, meaning God. Enthusiasm comes from being “in God.” When you are living fully “in God,” joy becomes the anchor for your soul.

Nineteenth-century English minister and professor Charles Kingsley said, “The men whom I have seen succeed best in life have always been cheerful and hopeful men, who went about their business with a smile on their faces, and took the changes and chances of this mortal life like men, facing rough and smooth alike as it came.”