January 18, 2024
Dear siblings in Christ,
This is a “joy check-in”. How are you doing meeting God in moments of delight?
In these deep winter days, finding those places of delight has been a challenge for me. It’s been too stinking cold to get any hiking in, the horse I ride has been laid up and there aren’t any others available to me at the barn, we’ve been cooped up inside, and my studio is freezing and poorly lit by this winter sun. I’m grateful for evenings by the fire, don’t get me wrong, but I’m also a bit cranky (and now whiney). Definitely “problems” for somebody with lots of privilege.
So perhaps I’m being invited to give this emerging Theology of Delight some deeper attention. Delight and joy aren’t exclusively given in obvious ways. Sometimes I need to be still enough in my heart and head to let quieter delight register. The heat of coffee passing down my throat, the warmth of a very, very soft blanket, the voice of my spouse, a text from one of our kids, noticing that in this moment my heart and lungs work and isn’t that astonishing? Delight is there, but sometimes I miss it. Or take it for granted. When I’m mindful enough to also mark these subtler moments of delight, I can let them nourish me with God’s presence. God is there. In the delight.
This is much more than “looking for the positive” or “focusing on the good”. We skate near the edge of toxic positivity by doing that, if we’re not careful. Things go terribly wrong. Someone we love suffers deeply and we are powerless to help. We get bad news. We go through a frightening ordeal. We feel like our life doesn’t have much meaning. And what about that privilege I mentioned? Is delight as a path to experiencing God only available to people who already have their basic needs met? I’ve still got questions here.
I think that thin joy is more like pleasure or indulgence – and those are fine, but fleeting. But thick, substantive joy is sustaining and nourishing, especially during times that are difficult, panful, and frightening. Those places of thick joy, whether we find them in obvious or quiet ways, are places God’s kingdom is breaking through, places we can directly experience God in true mystic and contemplative style. And as we would never say “Just pray about it and everything will be fine” to someone who is suffering, we also cannot ever say “Just look for joy and all will be well.”
I don’t mean this as one more thing you need to add to your already long list of things to do. Nor do I mean that if you aren’t finding places of delight right now you have somehow failed. Just like we sometimes find it impossible to pray, there are times we simply cannot experience joy. And that is OK. The invitation is to consider where you experience delight, even when you are suffering, and how you might incorporate those things as part of a spiritual practice. Let me know your thoughts. And may you find nourishment and strength as God comes to you disguised as Delight.
With love and in faith,
Jenny+
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