Finding Joy Each Day

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,
To the twelve tribes in the dispersion: Greetings.
My brothers and sisters, whenever you face various trials, consider it all joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance complete its work, so that you may be complete and whole, lacking in nothing.

James 1:1-3

Many of us are hurting. We are grieving. We live with pain. Along the journey, God has placed joy in life & creation for us to take in. Join us for worship in July & August as we look for the joy of the Lord in the ordinary places of life. If you missed Sunday’s service, you can watch it here:

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Thank you to Kathy for sharing her reflections from her summer in Colorado. I don’t know about you, but I look forward to hearing from her wisdom each week. Here is her recent reflection on last week’s service on the Healing: The Freedom of Hurting.

First of all, I want to thank Joanie for her honesty last Sunday. Both Al and I were very
moved by her sermon and spent some time together reflecting on our own families and the
losses we have suffered over the years. We also acknowledged that certain times of the year
are more difficult than others, as anniversaries come around. My Dad and I share the same
birthday, and the first birthday after his death was incredibly difficult. I remember climbing into
bed and covering my head with a blanket, immobilized with grief.

We also reflected that July is a difficult month for someone we love dearly. The beginning of July
brings around the anniversary of a traumatic loss that has left them forever changed, as all
significant losses do. For that and other reasons, I have been reflecting on the idea of trauma a
lot lately. My personal traumas (for example, my cancer diagnosis in 2009) and our collective
traumas (Covid, the nastiness of our public discourse, etc.) and the impact they have left on me
and those around me cannot be ignored, especially by those of us who call ourselves Christians.

Much of the conversation surrounding trauma today is a helpful counterbalance to the “grin and
bear it,” and “get over yourself” kind of messages I received growing up. Perhaps some of you
can relate. Loss is real, tragic things happen to all of us, and we are forever changed. This is a
truth acknowledged by the psychological community but not always by the church. Sometimes
we church people try too hard to look happy and perfect all the time, as if our very real hurt is a
bad reflection on Jesus and our faith. In so doing we lose the very real healing that is offered to
us through our faith.

Specifically, I want to focus on the attitude that trauma and loss is something that happens to
us, something that can be dealt with, boxed up, and put behind us so that we can continue on
the path our life should have had before we were hit by this “detour.” Here again, I turn to the
book of Job. Many people who read Job get stuck on the death of his children (and rightly so).
How could the ones who were born at the end of the book replace the ones lost at the
beginning, as if they were interchangeable? God’s blessing becomes suspect, and Job
becomes an example of a the “grin and bear it/just get over yourself” type of theology I
mentioned before. Especially when it comes to Job, our questions often say more about how
us than they do about the book, and I think these questions lead to a gross misunderstanding of
the intention of the book. No child is replaceable, not even in the story of Job. I do not believe
that is the point the book is trying to make.

Notice the end of the book gives no indication of Job’s emotions, no indication of Job’s reaction
to what happens to him next. All it says is God blessed him, his friends came to console him,
and he lived a long life. It never says Job forgot his other children or stopped loving them. The
better question for me is, after such extraordinary loss, could Job find a path to loving the
friends who were still alive and the new children he was given later in life? To not love those still
in his life would only have compounded the tragedy. Did Job thank God for his new children?
Did Job praise God for the many new blessings he received? I hope so. To love again is not a
denial of love already given. To love well, even after the pain of loss and trauma, is the
affirmation of God’s goodness.

All of us will suffer loss and endure trauma in some way or another, Christian or not. However,
when our suffering and trauma is addressed and the process of healing moves forward to a
place of peace then perhaps, we can learn to love those around us even better, treasure them
more dearly because of the journey it took to reach that point. To love others is to honor the love you lost. To heal yourself makes you a guiding light for those who are in the midst of their own
pain.

I have also learned this lesson from the person I mentioned above. For too long I wondered to
myself (and I’m going to be brutally honest here, so forgive me) why they just couldn’t get past it
and move on? Yes, I was being judgy, at least in my own head, but I was reacting out of my own
upbringing. There is no “getting over it,” there , however, healing and taking the path that lies
before us, not clinging to the path we think should have been ours. I have learned that an
individual’s timetable for true healing is not mine to determine, nor is its length a sign of anything
other than their own journey to well-being.

Church should be the place to bring our suffering so that it can be shared and healed. We would
do better to share the journey to well-being with each other rather than acting as if everything is
always ok. Again, thank you Pastor Joanie for your wonderful example and the spiritual
leadership you have shown us.

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Have you invited any kids to Vacation Bible School yet? We start this Sunday at 6:00 pm in the Fellowship Hall. Our camping adventure is for ages 3 through 5th grade. It will run Sunday, July 21- Wednesday, July 24, 6:00 – 8:00 pm.

We need a few props & supplies for our Camp Firelight Adventure. If you have any of the props we can use, please bring to the church by Wednesday afternoon with your name on them so we can return them:

• tents
• camping chairs
• lanterns
• twinkle lights
• boat paddles
• small Christmas trees
• other camping gear
• S’mores supplies: graham crackers, Hershey’s chocolate bars, large marshmallows