Joy can be found – even in midst of pandemic

Joy…

This current pandemic has been the stimulus for many people to try many different things.

People who have never baked are suddenly cooking sour-dough bread. People who have never sewed an inch are now crocheting and sewing. People who have never cooked have attempted French cuisine.

People who have never tidied are now tidying and cleaning and throwing out.

Marie Kondo has made a name – and career – for herself through her radical tidying philosophy.

Put simply, her philosophy is, ‘If it doesn’t give you joy, throw it out’. The stuff that gives you joy is the stuff you keep. This creates a life of joy that then radiates out to other people.

It sounds attractive. It is attractive – I mean, who doesn’t want to be surrounded by things that bring you joy? Who doesn’t want a life that makes the world more joyful?

As I read about this the other day, I found myself nodding. I found myself agreeing with the key ideas, even thinking about what gives me joy. But then I hit a problem… and we’ll get to that in a moment.

In this current pandemic, many have not only tried new things, and found new joys, but many of us have thought hard (like Marie Kondo encourages) about the stuff that gives us joy. For me, I find joy in the living in rural Australia – I would not trade the bush for the city any day! I find joy in being outside, in enjoying the natural world. I sit at my desk and enjoy the magpies on the lawn, the parrots in the tree, the sunrise and the night sky. I go outside, and hear the birds, enjoy lighting a fire and sitting around it with the family, walking by the river. I find joy in my family – they are a blessing I treasure. I find joy in exercise, in having the ability and opportunity to run and throw and chase and walk. I find joy in books, in reading and learning and thinking, in the way words create pictures and emotions and thoughts.

But here is my problem. In this broken and often damaged world, these sources of joy are fleeting and transient and painfully temporary. It only takes a virus we cannot see to halt any of these joys. A virus can make us housebound. A virus can sever family links, removing the goodness of physical proximity (also known as hugs!). A virus can remove exercise, making something as instinctive as breathing too hard. And a virus can remove stimulation, shutting down communication and exploration in the ways we are used to.

Is there any source of joy that can outlast, outlive, this broken world, whilst not being separate from this broken world?

I read a verse in the Bible last week that spoke directly to this question. It is from a poem, written by a bloke called David. David grew up in the bush, being raised in a small town similar in size to Wee Waa. He worked as shepherd, he was on the run for a while, fought as a soldier, and was eventually a king. He never lost his love of poetry and music. He is famous for writing the poem that begins, ‘The LORD is my shepherd…’

This verse that he wrote contains an invitation to find goodness, joy, in God. It says, ‘Taste and see that the LORD is good’ (Psalm 34:8).

I have always loved this verse. But as I read it last week, whether because of the pandemic or the explosion in people trying new stuff or Marie Kondo’s encouragement to look for the ‘joy-stuff’, it really hit home. And I was confronted by this offer: come and give God a go, and see that he provides joy – goodness – in life that can often be so broken.

Now, it is important to see that the offer is not for the easy life, or the successful life, or even for the rich life. The offer is to come to God and to see that his way makes sense of life, makes goodness in life, provides something that nothing else and no-one else provides.

At a time when we are trying so many different things, when so much that gives us joy has been temporarily removed, why not take God up on that offer?

After all, the descendant of David – Jesus – actually came to show us the reality of that goodness from God. He came to live, die and rose so that the root cause of this brokenness, this joy-stealing damage, might be defeated. He came to deal with the human rebellion against God that has broken this world.

This is not an offer distant from the dirt of this world, but forged and proven in the pain of this world. At a time when so much else has been shown to be temporary, what have you got to lose?

Rev Bernard Gabbott