Irrational.
“What no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived”—
the things God has prepared for those who love him—these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.
~ 1 Cor 2:9-10
advent, 3 - joy.
Sometimes it’s hard to talk about joy at Christmas because many are hurting. A lost loved one, financial constraints, loneliness, physical limitations… which takes us right to the mystical heart of Advent. Actually it’s the mystical heart of life: the capacity to hold joy and sorrow at the same time. How are you with that?
Sometimes in the face of genuine loss the most audacious, the most defiant, the most sacred act of all is unrestrained joy.
To embrace the freedom to be joyful is not a betrayal of reality; rather, it is an opening to the whole of reality. To climb into our losses and shrivel there is to slowly kill that which is holy in us. The mystic finds a level of peace in the contradictions and paradoxes of life. Even in the face of the absurdities of life, she opens her heart to the beauty of mystery.
Sometimes it’s downright irrational.
But irrational doesn’t mean unreal. To give ourselves to joy is to transcend the limitations of the rational and enter the realm of the noumenal. It is to perceive with spiritual senses what is not immediately evident to the physical senses (the phenomenal). Do you find yourself there sometimes? Does an innate knowing arise (metis) in moments that perceives, underneath all the genuine trauma of our world, a well-being, a shalom, that is somehow deeper and truer and more enduring than the suffering, both individually and collectively?
If you have, you just might be a mystic. If you haven’t touched that place yet, well then, you have something to look forward to!
If that all feels just a little too woo-woo, let’s bring it down to earth. True joy flows out of a grounded place, a contented place. Maybe even a magical place—and there is magic everywhere once you take the time to look. Even though joy often springs from the unseen realm, there are a thousand big and little reasons to celebrate what you can see. So start seeing!
See the frosty dew bejeweling a spider web. See your father’s glasses steam up when he comes in from the cold. See your friend’s eyes light up when you offer an unexpected compliment. Watch the winter sun etch the textures of tree bark. Watch a candle burn.
To tune into the magic surrounding our lives usually means we have to slow down… and Christmas time can often be the very hardest time to do that. So ease off the gas a little this week and take time to delight in the mystical beauty all around you.
growing your soul
What would it take to enlarge your capacity for joy today?
serving our world
What would it take to become contagious with joy today?
takeaway
See. Marvel. Celebrate.