Sometimes the Best Medicine…

I’ve been blessed with some incredible friends through the years who incite a riotous environment of deep belly laughter all around them. It starts as a small rumble, but quickly crescendos into a whole choir enjoying the fruit of a good joke and uninhibited joy.

We can talk endlessly about the turmoil and struggle of our daily lives. There is no bottom to the decay of the world, and how that perpetually rots away at our relationships. It can be easy, then, to turn ‘joy’ into another task that must be accomplished. It can be so easy to get stuck in the fallen state of our world, and forget the New Creation that God has already realized for us.

One of the greatest pleasures of our small community is the amount of joy and laughter that is present. We are unafraid to confront the giants that stare us down, but we often do it with a levity and hope that is uncommon and nonsensical to those on the outside. Our meals are filled with stories that invite the rest of the community into the interwoven history that has forged the individual in front of us.

It’s a picture of the New Creation.

Weekly Practice: Look for Creation

I used to only understand the concept of enduring in a theoretical sense. I knew what it meant to push through the pain of life, but I hadn’t yet discovered the shaping force of enduring.

When we moved to Nanaimo in 2019, I had been running for over 5 years. If you’ve spent any time with me, you’ll know that I run not for enjoyment, but because of my love for food. The act of running itself is more tedious for me, and offers a chance to get away from the everyday of life and endure. Not far from our house is a hill that meanders on for a kilometer and gains almost 100 metres of elevation. It’s brutal; I run it twice a week. That hill has taught me a lot about my body, my state of mind, and how I am capable of far more than I think both before and during the trials of life.

There is something surreal about finally cresting the hill and looking ahead to the gentle downslope that offers a small recovery. My heart pounding, my legs tired, and my lungs working in overdrive – my body finally relaxes knowing that the worst is over.

James 1:2-4 talks about how endurance is an opportunity for joy. Our faith needs to be tested to make sure that it is true, and to reveal to ourselves the limits of our own belief. The trials are an opportunity to expand our faith because God is far more capable than you believe.

This week, when you catch yourself giving in to the pessimism of our day, stop and look for the New Creation. Look for how God is working around you. Rest in how He has already provided for you. Allow the trial to grow you, and then blossom a deep joy.

Some of my greatest times of laughter have come after deep valleys. My soul longed for a release to allow a burst of colour to return to a monochromatic world. The result was a beautiful explosion of joy that reminded me of the kaleidoscopic beauty God has created for us. It was ushered back into New Creation, and entered those gates with others around me.