I have not been watching much television in the last few weeks; I also haven’t been spending a lot of time on the computer… this time of year is a good time to give up television and social media; I get so tired of seeing commercials promising Christmas joy. A better phone, a sparking diamond ring, the newest game conole… all the joy you can muster will be yours if you spend your money on some of this stuff…
Don’t get me wrong… I like presents… I like giving them, I like getting them. I hope to upgrade my phone to something wonderful and crazy; I have days when I actually enjoy a little Christmas shopping craziness in the right situation… I enjoy the lights on trees, I enjoy the festive look of things; I try to be nicer to my fellow drivers in crowded parking lots; I enjoy getting mystery packages from my in-laws and wondering, “what has mom done now…?
It’s good stuff… it’s fun…. and while our family doesn’t decorate until Christmas eve, ( if we decorate at all), I know other families are enjoying their traditions around decorating…
It’s all good stuff… It’s all stuff that can be fun to do; it’s the kind of stuff happy holiday memories are made of…
But it’s not joy… certainly not true Christian joy.
Joy, as least as we experience it as Christians, is different than happiness… For so many people, this time of year is not filled with happiness. There are lots of people struggling with financial issues, broken relationships, loneliness, grief, unfulfilled dreams, broken promises…
Joy is not incompatible with the grief and sorrow that we feel, and in fact, can help us to live alongside our struggles… joy can give us the strength and the structures we need to help negotiate some of the difficulties we face.
Joy, as it is talked about in our scripture, is not as simple as happiness… it’s a deeper, richer, and more permanent state… joy, as we experience it, is the knowledge that we are in relationship with God… a deep, permanent relationship that gets us through the good and bad, that gives us strength and confidence that can only be found in God. It helps us to experience the important parts of our life, regardless of whether we are happy or not…
Even John the Baptist knows that with God there is joy…he lets his followers know that their waiting is not in vain; that the Lord is coming… that their relationship with God is about to change and become something they never thought possible…
The joy of being in relationship with God is the kind of gift that is around long after the new cell phone is obsolete, or the video games get old, or the diamond loses its shine…joy affects us in so many ways… it gives us the peace of mind we need to get through the “less than happy” stuff… joy helps us to be in relationship with others as well as with God because we know that we are all related to and dependent upon each other… joy allows us to see the image of God reflected back at us, and perhaps even see that image of God in ourselves…
Happiness is a good thing; joy is a life giving thing that can help us even when happiness evades us…. joy, like most things that involve God has its beginning relationship… in God’s relationship within the Trinity, in God’s relationship with us and with our relationships with each other. When God is the basis of our relationship, that relationship is life giving; it is the kind of relationship that is based in honesty, in shared strength, and shared vulnerability.
These next days can be so hard on so many… My prayer for each of us is that we focus on those things that are life giving, and that we do not necessarily focus on what’s “expected” of us; placing our time and our focus on those things that are truly important will no doubt help us negotiate one of the most stressful times of the year for most of us…
Relationship… that is the gift we receive; when I know that I am in relationship with God, I am also in relationship with God’s people; not the superficial relationships of business or acquaintances, but rather the relationships of those who know that all are precious in God’s sight; they are relationships built on God’s dreams focus rather than the values of the empire…
Our waiting continues, but he is closer… and with him comes the joy that fills our hearts, and helps us to fill the emptiness we may feel by the losses and disappointments of life. May God’s joy fill us and help us to fill the emptiness of others. The joy of relationship with God through Jesus is one that does not have limits and does not end… it is ours this day and always…. it is the light which will transform the darkness…. The Lord is near… do not worry but rejoice…. Joy is ours… come O come Emmanuel.