Never live above your means!
Always live above your circumstances!
When I took a month long mission trip to Malawi, called the Warm Heart of Africa, I encountered the happiest people I had ever met.
Malawi is one of the 10 poorest countries in the world. In Malawi people still live in mud huts, walk barefoot, do not always know when they will have their next meal, lack clean water, and have a short life expectancy. Yet they were the happiest people I every met.
Why?
Genuine happiness belongs to those who live above the circumstances.
How do you live above your circumstances? Find your joy in heaven and live with faith, hope, and love.” These are “the treasures of heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.” (Matthew 6:20)
My friend Earl lived 15 years bedfast, unable to do anything for himself. Yet he radiated pure happiness, deep joy, and love to every person he met, 24/7. He lived a bountiful life.
My friend Kitty fought cancer for 20 years, but no one ever knew. She spent her years caring for and encouraging others. No one never heard a peep of complaint from her.
Earl and Kitty often put me to shame, when I listen to my whining while enjoying good wine.
People who live joy-full lives in the midst of poverty and difficulty learn to live above their circumstances.
Those of us who live blessed lives often dig around our circumstances, looking for one difficulty to bring our whole house down. We depress ourselves in the midst of God’s blessings.
Instead of lifting our eyes up to the Lord in gratitude, we look down at the stormy waves of the sea and flood our hearts with worry and despair.
Jesus had it all in heaven, yet chose to empty himself, by taking the form of a servant (Philippians 2:7) Then, when He knew His enemies would soon betray, arrest, and crucify Him, “He washed His disciples feet! (John 13:5)
Jesus never let circumstances affect His spirit.
Neither did my friends Earl and Kitty nor those in Malawi. They chose to live above their circumstances. They chose to live with faith, hope, and love finding their joy in heaven.
Bread Crumbs - Devotions for Life 
I’d like to know more about the people in Malawi.
Jim Yearsley in planning a Mission Trip to Sputh Africa and Malawi. The first hand experience is the best source of knowledge. None the less, let me give it a quick shot.
The poverty and life difficulty in Malawi would remind America’s poorest that they have an easy life and a good life. Too many people in America live with a sense of entitlement, that someone else should be providing their needs. In Malawi, the people I met pursued happiness. In America people demand happiness as a right to be given to them.
What I found in Malawi and with my friends Earl and Kitty was a spirit which is becoming more and more alien in America, among rich and poor. It saddens me that so many people who live in the midst of so much privilege and comfort mire themselves in the misery of despair because they have neither learned nor chosen to live above their circumstances.
Rus, You remind me of the morning we worshiped for the first time among the saints at Naocha. Do you remember the time of the offering?
It was their harvest Sunday. A seemingly endless line of men women and children danced and swayed up to the communion table carrying (in some cases on their heads) large woven baskets filled with grain — in every case the first portion of their harvests and food that they desperately needed at home.
What has always remained with me from that scene was the way they had stopped on the way to worship and decorated each basket and offering with wild flowers and the beauty of creation.
The point was that the CHOSE to live that joyfully.
Jim, you are absolutely correct. It was a choice of faith and vision which brought them great joy in a land in immense poverty.