Choose Joy

I did a lovely thing on the weekend – with my sister and one of my nieces I went to the theatre.  For an afternoon we were cocooned in a darkened auditorium, watching Hairspray.  From the first arms outstretched singing of ‘Good morning Baltimore’ it was an uplifting and a joyful respite from the worries of this wearied world.

At the same time, though, as thoughts of the floods crept in, I wondered about how we balance joy and suffering, happiness and sadness.  Was it really OK for us to be sitting comfortably at the theatre while so many of our fellow Victorians were knee deep in flood water?  Is it ok for our lives to be proceeding in peace while so many of the people of our world are suffering the horrific effects of war?

We see this played out in so many aspects of life: A football team wins a grand final and rejoices while the team that loses is plunged into disappointment.  One member of the family has happy news while another is having a tough time.  A baby is born and down the corridor the hearts of other parents break because their little one did not survive.  We finally take possession of a new car and have an accident in its first days.  Something we thought we longed for turns out to not be right.  Spring comes but a wintry heart remains.  We long for peace and so often we feel that nothing is ever just right.  There is often bitterness in the cup of life.

I grew up with a profound sense of this: close to my birth, my maternal grandfather had a lawn-mowing induced heart-attack one sunny Sunday afternoon.  The story was oft repeated – one minute mowing the next collapsed in the yard.  So mum and her mother – while rejoicing at the birth of a child were also mourning the death of their beloved father and husband.  Joy and sorrow intermingled.

For people of faith the psalms offer some insight into this fine balance.  This weekend we will reach through the ages and pray Psalm 33, ‘The Lord hears the cry of the poor’:

I will bless the Lord at all times;
his praise shall be ever in my mouth.
Let my soul glory in the Lord;
the lowly will hear me and be glad.

The Lord confronts the evildoers,
to destroy remembrance of them from the earth.
When the just cry out, the Lord hears them,
And from all their distress he rescues them.

The Lord is close to the broken-hearted;
and those who are crushed in spirit he saves.
The Lord redeems the lives of his servants;
no one incurs guilt who takes refuge in him.

There is a comfort in knowing that the Lord hears the cries of all hearts.  And maybe knowing that is enough for us to be confident that it is OK to experience happiness when the world seems to be in disarray.  To appreciate little moments of peace to remind us that the story of violence, of floods, of heart break and disappointment are not the final word.  That the world is tilted toward joy and blessing.  And that the essential message of generations of those who have gone before us that joy and sorrow are intermingled – and we can choose joy.  Or, as Pope Francis observes: ‘Joy adapts and changes, but it always endures, even as a flicker of light born of our personal certainty that, when everything is said and done, we are infinitely loved’.

By Cathy Jenkins