A Shabbas Table: The Luxury of Joy
Things have been gently joyful lately, more later. For now, a good Shabbas everyone : ) On Shabbas more than ever does the following qoute ring true, from Holy Experience. Its not that i don't think depression is real, is a teacher when its true...for it puts a light upon what is longing to shift, or allows our grieving, our lament, which allows something to soften or open up. I think that is all a part of living, a gift really. And yet even when depressed, deep down we know there is still underneath a thread running through life of hope and joy, we know its there, the thread may fade quite a bit but it never really seems to break.
From Anne's post:
"Some say joy is not a luxury, but a duty, an owed act. Not a frill sewed onto the Christ-life, but the required fabric.
Ice (crystals, beautiful in my hand,) tinkles, scatters. And I think: yes, it is that. God has bestowed, given. And I owe Him delight. Wouldn't anything else be robbery? Stealing away without so much as a word of gratitude for this show of daily wonders, this next breath, this.
I gather crystals, delicate and disappearing, and know that joy is the only reasonable response, yes, the duty of a human being who can produce nothing, but only receive. All I can give, really, is joy. It's what I owe.
Joy is to be the very garment, the weave, of the Christ-follower.
But sitting here, if I am honest, joy feels nothing like a duty, an obligatory uniform. It surges, warm, an elixir of life....Joy is a duty... and a luxury. Not either/or, but both/and...
For the word luxury stems from the Latin, luxo, to loosen. I am loosened from the dark, released, freed. This Light is luxury. Defined as "a free or extravagant indulgence in the pleasures of the table," I could, if I chose, know quotidian luxury..."
May we luxuriate in His Love this Sabbath. Good Shabbas Everyone : )