It’s the Little Things
“A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.”
Proverbs 17:22, NIV
It is easy to find ourselves in seasons when our spirit becomes crushed and God feels far away. Suddenly, life is replaced with greyscale dreariness, washing away the rich technicolor we are used to and all the feelings of daily delight that accompany it.
These seasons of distress can shake our faith to the core: God may feel absent and it is hard to find beauty and joy in life. These trials make it hard to remain motivated and do the things that we need to make life better.
What should we do when we are in this state of mind and even the acts of self-care, like going to the gym, enjoying dinner with a friend or a quiet movie evening do not return the colors of our daily lives? It’s easy to think we need to make a radical change in order to feel better — quit and change our job, go on an exotic vacation or overhaul our eating habits — but perhaps rediscovering joy can be found without such extremes!
I read in a magazine that ‘big joys and small joys are the same.’ I think sometimes we forget that they feed our heart, body, soul and spirit in the same way.
Joy on your wedding day, a triumphant day at work or a trip of a lifetime can bring the same sense of happiness as the small moments of joy — helping a friend, an impromptu lunch with someone new after church, laughing with your children or grandchildren, baking or cooking while listening to a favorite album, drinking a cold drink outside at the end of a long, hot day, or a walk with your dog in the evening. We need to pause and drink in the beauty of the moment rather than see it as another job on the never-ending list of things for which we are responsible.
Our lives are busy and pressured — vacations, spa days and golf trips only go so far as to mitigate the anxieties of living in the modern world — instead, we must recapture small joys to tend to our weary and crushed spirits.
Prayer
O heavenly Father, you have filled the world with beauty: Open our eyes to behold your gracious hand in all your works; that, rejoicing in your whole creation, we may learn to serve you with gladness; for the sake of him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
“The Book of Common Prayer,” page 815
