Life’s a mess. Part of the reason people have so much trouble dealing with adversity in their lives comes from the fact we’ve lost touch with the ebb and flow of life. Our ancestors grieved and rejoiced in the endless cycle until it ended and they met their Creator. In a world where death swept in on the winds of famine, pestilence, plague, war and other senseless tragedies, our ancestors struggled to make sense of things.
They had a prayer for everything, whether it was a voyage across the tempestuous Atlantic, planting your crops or before a battle. When you found out your wife was expecting, you’d go before the priest to ask for God’s grace on your child and its mother. Death and suffering were everywhere, and people held no illusion of the cruelty of the world. Yet still, they had a joy we lack.
Today, we live in a seemingly eternal summer of plenty. The mission of marketing is to sell you a spotless future through the next product. We live lives of pleasure and excess, until they aren’t. When tragedy interrupts the endless party, people lose their minds. The idea of a stage 4 diagnosis, your wife expiring during delivery or the fatal vehicular collision comes crashing into your world and destroys your mind. Even worse, while you’re grieving, the party still rages around you. Commercials with cute ukuleles and glockenspiels preach the perfection of the world, as you’re clutching what remains of your fractured reality to your chest. You get quietly ushered away as to not wreck the party for everybody else.
We’ve lost our ability to navigate the seasons of life. Where there was a time to welcome children and a time to bury the dead, we’re sold a vision of eternal bliss, just one product away. You can have everything you want all the time. But we’ve forgotten that the cruelty of life persists despite our technological dominance over the world. We don’t live in a world without tragedy. Nobody ever has. But still, we live in denial.
The only way to make sense of the mess is to live like our forefathers. Take joy in the good in our lives and pray for perseverance under suffering. Remember, God is the author of all things and even when we lose control of our lives, he still has control. Reject the fake and false bliss of this world. You will come to understand why even the martyrs were able to die joyful deaths, singing hymns even as their worlds collapsed around them.
Joy defies convenience because it’s rooted in the ebb and flow of creation. You won’t find joy in the “treat yourself” mentality that says one more nice thing will complete your life. You’ll find joy in the quiet satisfaction with what God gave you. It sounds counter-intuitive, but a grateful heart drives you to act. The hunger of the passions anathematize you into a soulless consumer. The evidence is in front of you everywhere. Those eager to fill their cups with the world become more empty inside with every passing day, while the humble and meek who greet every morning with prayerful consideration move mountains with their lives.
Make time in your life to consider what you have, to grieve, to reap, to sow, to birth, to bury, to live, and you will find joy.
What is the title of that beautiful painting and who is the Artist?