​Seeking Joy

September 1, 2024 by Tatayana Richardson

I will be 24 years old by the time you read this, and without question I have lived in unprecedented times — I was two years old when 9/11 occurred; I was a freshman in high school when the Sandy Hook shooting happened; I have witnessed a rise in mass shootings and gun violence. If this were not enough, my college years saw a pandemic and the growing effects of global warming. 

As I look back over my childhood, teenage years, and young adult life, I take a moment of lament for the world we have created for ourselves and one another. But alongside my lament, I find myself seeking grounding, joy, and release. Personally, I struggle with the biblical instruction to “count it all joy” when we face trials (see Jas. 1:2). Sometimes it is truly impossible to count something as joy, but perhaps we can take a small step toward this by finding tiny moments of joy and centering amid deep sorrow. 

The urge to look for joy even in times of deepest sorrow reminds me of Genesis 18:1-14. When Sarah was told she would bear a son, she laughed. Sarah was past childbearing age when angels brought this news to her. It was seemingly impossible, and I can only imagine how preposterous this suggestion must have sounded to her. Maybe Sarah’s laughter was grounding for her. Laughing — even at the most inopportune times — can relieve stress, creating a calming and soothing effect. While we may not laugh in difficult moments, welcoming the fullness of our feelings in all circumstances can allow us to process and make space for deeper reflection and discernment. 

In moments of shock or tragedy, actions that offer us relief and a sense of being present in our body may be as divine an act as prayer. Such action may look different for all of us, whether it be breathing deeply, crying, laughing out loud, going for a run, dancing around the house with friends, or just lying on the living room floor. Whatever the action, finding, creating, and welcoming even the smallest moment of grounding may be the first step toward embracing and expressing our feelings and finding our agency in difficult situations. 

When we look at Sarah, we are reminded that after her laughter, she gave birth to a son and welcomed what God had promised her. Sarah reminds us that ordinary, daily actions can ground us and help us to embrace the possibilities God puts before us. In the midst of the unprecedented, we can feel our emotions to their fullest. Doing so offers us moments of stillness and opportunities to pray or worship. But then we are called to join with our community and to take action to make our world a better place.

Questions for Reflection:

1. When you feel untethered or ungrounded, what activities help bring you back into yourself?
2. What parts of your community help you feel most alive and most like yourself?
3. When you think about what grounds you and the parts of your community that make you your best self, how might you draw these two things together to create a space where you and your community can be grounded together? How might that communal grounding be turned into action for the betterment of the world?



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