Inspiration:
How do you find joy when times are hard?
Joy
Practicing joy does not mean we never feel pain or fear or frustration. Faithfulness is not about believing that everything will always turn out okay. Carl Scovel’s “Great Surmise” does not say that everything will always turn out fine. Sometimes things go terribly wrong. Always, we bear the knowledge that we will lose people we love. My faith is not predicated on never feeling terrible grief. (Good thing.) My faith is that even with all the terrible grief we must bear, even in a world where war is too often thought to be the answer, even in a world where some people believe it is okay to torture and abuse other people, even in this world, an eternal goodness lies deep at the heart of Creation. And this goodness makes love possible.
If this is our faith, our responsibility is great. If we believe this, we are called to attend to the beauty and goodness. That means slowing down sometimes. It means looking deeply and compassionately. It means finding the courage to keep our hearts open. Painting thank-you on our palms for the laughter of the morning. Or singing a song of praise. In these ways we attend to the goodness at the heart of things.
BY MARY KATHERINE MORN, PARISH MINISTER, UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST CONGREGATION OF FAIRFAX, VIRGINIA TO READ MORE
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