“I just like to smile. Smiling’s my favorite.” This is still one of my favorite lines from the movie Elf. Maybe it’s because I really do love to smile. I think back on our recent trip to Guatemala and my face may have been sore from smiling. Really! Every person we would encounter or pass on the streets we would exchange a smile and a horribly mispronounced Spanish greeting. It was almost customary for us to be overly friendly…possibly even labeled as the scary smiling gringos. But it was just one of those things you do…you almost can’t help it. The beauty of the country and it’s people was overwhelming. But now we find ourselves two weeks removed; back in our routines, work habits and possibly even struggling to smile.

Well this wasn’t good enough for me. So I tried a little experiment a few days ago. As I was visiting my local Kroger I went crazy with the smiling. I smiled and said “Hi” to everyone who would make any sort of eye contact with me. So now I am not banned from that Kroger as the creepy smiling pastor…j/k. In all seriousness I probably received an 80% positive return rate of either a smile or a return greeting (granted I wasn’t keeping statistical reference and there wasn’t a control group). But I begin to think about how a smile can really communicate so much.

1 Peter 3:8-9 goes a bit like this, “Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” Inexpressible and glorious joy. I love that phrase. Although I am not entirely sure that the joy Peter is describing is inexpressible. Maybe it is beyond our normal human limitations to try to describe this joy, but I actually think it is quite easy to express our Christian joy. It might even be as easy as smiling. Think about it for a minute. What is the second fruit of the Spirit? “Love, Joy…” If we are consumed by the Spirit of God, then the second most important identifying mark of that life, second only to love, is joy. And yet how often do we walk around with vacant, lifeless expressions. Or worse yet, sour or frustrated expressions. This should not be.

So my challenge to myself and to others is to recapture a bit of the dumb crazy gringo Guatemala magic. I am going to smile, to wave, to greet anybody around me. Why? Because inside me I am consumed with the ever present fact that I have a God who would do anything to be with me (and in fact has already done that). And maybe if people see that on my face, hear that in my voice they might wish to be consumed with that same joy. So if you see me and I am not smiling make sure I am not dying first and then quickly correct my expression. Because I just love to smile…