A Joy Revisited is a Joy Renewed

We had a beautiful ANZAC Service at Somerset this year, even if it was online. There was dignity, reflection, and, especially, the wreaths. Their colours were glorious and, while this was not obvious online, their fragrance was beautiful.

They combined to powerfully declare the sacrifice of those who served, the honour which is their due, and the promise we received because of their actions.

Today I walked past the ANZAC Memorial and saw that the wreaths remained where they were laid, and it made me sad. Not because someone had forgotten to move them, that person should have been me. I paid great attention to running the service but not to the follow through, a common condition I expect, but that is a story for another article. I was sad because the sun, rain, wind, heat, and cold had sapped the joy from the wreaths. They were brown and brittle, they had lost not just their sparkle but also some of their parts.

This is a powerful parable for life. We experience many joys, but if we do not revisit and refresh them they remain a memory, but they lose their “wow!” It is why religious people worship regularly, in public and in private, for in worship you bring yesterday’s gratitude and experience of God’s presence into today.

Life today is so complicated and often so blinkered by our social media and email interactions that the quiet voice in our minds that prompts us to take time to revive the joys are not heard. And over time, the “wow!” withers. It need not be so.

Oh, we are good at celebrations – birthdays, religious holidays, anniversaries – just as we were on Anzac day. But what about the in-between?

Parents, how many times in a week, (better, a day) do you refresh your children’s experience of your joy in them? The words, the cuddles, the affirmations, the pause in correction or criticism. This even works with teenagers, with some clever adaptation.

Partners, often your joy is the last to be refreshed because you are so busy refreshing others and making sure your family just survives. When was the last phone call you had just to hear each other’s voice and to whisper words of love? The last time you laughed together, or enjoyed the wonders of a sunset, a sunrise or a rainbow? The last gift given not for an occasion but simply for love?

Colleagues, what happens in the gaps in the timetable? How often do you share a kind word, an affirmation, a laugh, even a smile? When do you take time to listen attentively to a story someone wants to share, even if it doesn’t interest you that much? What do you in the horrible seasons – marking and report writing – to be sure your personal tension doesn’t add to others’ stress?

Jesus put it this way, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” (John 15:11)