Issue 31 What is Joy?Blog | Joy and pain – Essential reading for preachers
Joy and pain – Essential reading for preachers
Author: Andy PeckPost Date: 23.06.22
Last night I felt my eyes welling up with tears. I was in my church, but there was no expounding of scripture, no moving prayers, powerful testimony or emotionally charged congregational sung worship that had moved me to this moment. I was simply attending the town’s youth choir concert, at which my daughter happened to be performing.
Perhaps I was extremely tired – I had worked round the clock for weeks trying to mobilise government and society to offer hospitality to Ukrainian refugees. Perhaps it was a symptom of stress – I had just returned from the Ukrainian-Moldova border where traumatised women and children were passing through in one direction only, fleeing the devastation of war. Or perhaps it was something else. Here was my adopted daughter, her life story one of conflict, displacement and trauma, confidently and beautifully singing ‘What a Wonderful World’ by Louis Armstrong. She reminded me of a group of Ukrainian boys I had seen in Moldova, chasing a bouncy ball and laughing together. That had moved me to tears as well. Despite everything going on around them, they were experiencing joy. Perhaps I was too. It might seem incongruous, even distasteful to seek moments of joy as we enter the second month of war in Europe, but perhaps there is no better time. Is it not in times of crisis that we realise the true value of things? Is it not a sign of spiritual maturity to learn from children? Are we not commanded to rejoice, even in times of great difficulty?
SURPRISED BY JOY C.S. Lewis (Collins)
