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Seek Infinite Joy
I saw a few Christmas related commercials this week (yes, dear hearts, there is a television in the anchorage 😊). Anyway, I saw some commercials this week where the message was, “Spread a little joy”. Different products were being peddled: funny socks, Philadelphia Cream Cheese, and bath and body sets. I was thinking this morning about the advertising copy; the words: “Spread a little joy”.
Actually, I think in the comparison of all possible joys we seek for ourselves or to share with others, cream cheese, socks, and bath bubbles would fall into the “little joy department”. Well, what about coming down the stairs and seeing a fancy bottle of Italian liquor, or a Peloton; or, looking out the window to see a new Lexus with a big red bow. Those would be pretty big joys, right? Well, in comparison to cream cheese, sure.
The problem is we aim for the small stuff. As, C.S. Lewis says, “We are far too easily pleased.”
He wrote:
“It would seem that OUR LORD finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures. Fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when INFINITE JOY is offered us. Like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
Infinite Joy never changes. It doesn’t go away after the presents have been unwrapped and the paper and boxes have been placed in the trash. Or when the big shiny “little joy object” has had its shine worn away. The joy that God provides does not change because the Giver never changes. His love is in infinite supply. As we hear in today’s antiphon, our God is the source of eternal light and righteousness. He is the source of Big Joy.
Dear Ones, I hope you seek Infinite Joy, Jesus the Sun of Righteousness, who is coming to lift us out of darkness by praying on December 21st:
December 21st: O Oriens
O Morning Star, splendor of light eternal and sun of righteousness: come and enlighten those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death
See Isaiah 9:2, Isaiah 60:1-2, Malachi 4:2
+The Anglican Anchoress