Joy

This week we lit the "Joy" candle on the Advent wreath.  Each week we have a different family or individual light the candle of the week and share something, and this week the lady who opened up the sharing had a good point:  what a week to be thinking about joy.

Today, the first funeral services took place for the children who were gunned down at Sandy Hook school.  This week will be full of them.  It's sad.  Which seems like the opposite of joy.  Merriam-Webster's dictionary says (the lady from church read this, too, just so you know it's not an original thought) that joy is: "the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires."

I don't feel like being joyful, and the prospect of writing about it bothers me a little because I know that there is great sorrow among people in my nation tonight.  And yet, the apostle Paul was pretty adamant that Christians should rejoice always.  Always?  And this was a guy who saw and experienced some pretty awful stuff.

So... I think that at my first glance, Merriam-Webster's definition of joy was perhaps lacking a little bit as far as what my understanding of joy from scripture is.  My own experience with joy is that it runs more deeply than a quick, reactive emotion when something goes my way.  And this, conveniently enough, brings us back to the idea of Advent.  Romans 12:12 says to be "joyful in hope."  I read an article earlier tonight where the author underlined the part of the dictionary definition that says "the prospect of possessing what one desires."  So, the anticipation of things being as they should be brings us hope and joy.  I think that for me, peace comes from knowing that God is with me right now.  Joy comes from the hope that eventually, all things will be made new and right.

That's what I'm hanging onto right now.  As we realize more and more how very real the darkness is in this world, we can have a measure of joy because it will not always be so.  Advent is a reminder that in the moments where it seems impossible to find joy in the present, we know that there is a time coming when promises will be fulfilled.

I do pray for those directly affected by the tragedies we experienced this week.  I pray that they will have time and space to mourn and to know that their losses are significant to all of us.  I pray that when it is time, they will find hope and peace again, and that they will know what it is to have joy restored to them.  And I pray for the rest of us, struggling to make sense of it all and to know how to react, that we will find a way to remain in the love of God, who is now, and will continue to be, with us.

"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.  Now remain in my love.  If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commands and remain in his love.  I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy will be complete.  My command is this:  love each other as I have loved you."  John 15:9-12