Skip to main content

Will We Ever Find Joy?

The weekly devotion I have been using this Advent seasons ends with this blessing each week:
May God bless us with mornings when we find (hope, peace, joy) in aligning our ideas with God's ideas.
May God bless us with noon times when we find (hope, peace, joy) in aligning our work with God's work.
May God bless us with evenings when we find (hope, peace, joy) in reflecting and giving thanks to God.
You can find more information about this devotion here (thanks for this great resource!)
 
As I reread this week’s meditation again this morning I can't help but find tears in my eyes. 
The scripture for this week’s meditation time came from Isaiah 35:1-10. “The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad…” 

As I read this same scripture again this morning my heart is aching for those who are in a dry land with no hope. War torn countries, broken families with no chance of reconciliation, nations devastated by famine and illness at epidemic levels, just to name a few. In these places it is difficult to see the promises of Advent. The coming of a child, who will bring hope to the hopeless, peace to the oppressed, and joy to the distressed. In a world broken and fragmented by hatred and hostility; blinded by greed and power we grasp for even a glimpse of the promise this child might offer. We mask our fear by doing "Christmas stuff", turning off the news and turning on a Holiday Classic, making gingerbread houses and giving money to local charities. All the while the broken world screaming for hope, crying for peace, shouting for joy spins on further out of control. 

This is past Sunday was the Sunday of Joy in the season of Advent and for me it felt anything but "joyful". Worship was lovely we sang hymns of joy, we lit the joy candle, I think I offered a word about being people of God's joy in my sermon. We shared in communion and a fellowship meal. But at the end of the day joy was not what I was feeling.  Hope and peace weren't really in the running either and as I read the text from Isaiah one more time, I realized while I see the dry land coming into blossom in my little corner of the church world it isn't happening everywhere. As I urge my congregation to think further outside the walls of our building, I know we will struggle with how we live the gospel when questions like these:
Where is the joy in innocent people being killed by their government? 
Where is the joy in children not having enough when grown adults have far more than they need? 
Where is the joy when families are ripped a part by a system that is stacked against them? 

We will struggle with how to live the gospel as long as there are questions like this in our world. 
  
In a world that so needs to hear and proclaim a gospel of hope, peace, and joy but isn’t because of being too preoccupied in our own little worlds (I’m guilty of this myself). 
We are so preoccupied with finding the perfect gifts or making sure the tree looks just right or getting all the baking done. We are more concerned about who will be upset if they don’t get a Christmas greeting in the mail from us or who will hold a grudge if their plate of cookies is a little smaller this year because the budget is tight. In the scheme of things, the “problems” that concern us this time of year pale in comparison to problems around the world.

In the midst of portraying an Advent season full of Joy and preparing for the coming Christ Child, my heartaches for a world that stands in contrast to everything this season should offer. 

I have no answer to any of the questions posed here. 

My only hope as this Advent season continues is that we will get out of our own way so that the Christ Child may fully enter our lives. 
That we might be transformed into people of hope, peace, joy and love. 
That we might learn how to do better, be better, live better, love better; in the name of the One who calls us to follow him.
 
May God bless us with mornings when we find (hope, peace, joy) in aligning our ideas with God's ideas.
May God bless us with noon times when we find (hope, peace, joy) in aligning our work with God's work.
May God bless us with evenings when we find (hope, peace, joy) in reflecting and giving thanks to God.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Prayer for the Week

picture from churchart.com My prayer this week is not my own but is a song entitled “The Blessing” by Celtic Woman. I spent the day at a spiritual retreat center and this is the song that kept coming to my mind. I wanted to share it with you (whoever reads this blog) In the morning when you rise I bless the sun, I bless the skies I bless your lips, I bless your eyes My blessing goes with you In the night time when you sleep Oh, I bless you while a watch I keep As you lie in slumber deep My blessing goes with you   This is my prayer for you There for you, ever true Each every day for you In everything you do And when you come to me And hold me close to you I bless you And you bless me too When your weary heart is tired If the world would leave you uninspired When nothing more of love's desire My blessing goes with you   When the storms of life are strong When you're wounded, when you don't belong When...
2 comments
Read more

Is This Love?

I don't follow politics as much as I should... but I have been following, entirely second hand, what happened in North Carolina and President Obama’s statement supporting same-sex marriage and I wonder…how did we get here? I am in the midst of working on my sermon for Sunday and I don’t know where to go because I don’t know how we got here. Maybe you are asking “where is here?” Here May 11, 2012 in a society that feels like total anarchy. 236 years ago (give or take) some people who were feeling oppressed and alienated sought to make a better life where it would be understood that ALL were created equal. Of course that first claim came with underlying unspoken exceptions- ALL were created equal- except women, children, people of different skin tone, and more recently people who define and qualify love differently than others. I admittedly do not know much more than I did as a senior in high school about politics. Political Science was a classed I HAD to take in order to gra...
2 comments
Read more

Changing of the Seasons

"I don't like this cold..." SERIOUSLY not even two weeks ago some of the same people who are saying this were more recently saying "I can't stand this heat, I wish it was cooler." You got your wish, quit complaining!  Why is it we are never happy in the moment? It is too hot, too cold, too boring, too silly, too dry, too wet, too overwhelming, not overwhelming enough...the list continues. As I sit in my office this afternoon, reflecting on the past few week's events (funerals, Sunday school starting, children and youth activities starting, countless meetings, and moments(very few moments) of silence) I hear in the back of my mind a voice not my own reciting the beginning of Ecclesiastes 3     1  For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:  2  a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;  3  a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break do...
2 comments
Read more