I asked this question on our Facebook group. "What do you wish for each classmate for the new year?" Crickets. I'll start because I understand some folks may need guidance or help answering that question. Understandable. So, I'll start.
What I wish for my classmates is not happiness. I pray more than that. I pray for joy--because joy does not have one project their personality onto others. It makes each person feel good enough about him/herself to have the desire to make someone else have the same feelings about themself.
Here's an example of happiness I share with my Sunday school kids; an experience when I was visiting grandparents and cousins in Arkansas (which, if you did not know--is still God's country 😉). My cousin, my sister, and I walked uptown to the store. I saw a dollar bill on the ground behind the rear tire of a car parked in front of the store. My cousin and my sister were as happy as I was because they knew that we'd all share in the treats that dollar would buy. Back then, we could get candy bars, some penny gumballs, and a bag of marshmallows for the wiener roast we always had in Grandma's backyard. We were so happy while spending that dollar in the grocery store! We were still happy as we enjoyed all the treats.
But when they were gone, they were a memory that lasted over 50 years. "Remember how happy we were when we found that dollar?" we'd ask each other. "Yeah, that was a good day. We had the best wiener roast at Grandma's!" For as long as that dollar bill lasted with what it could buy, is an example of the fleetingness of happiness. You might be happy while you ruminate over that memory, but not as happy as when it happened. You might be upset because you can only have the memory and not the experience that was found with that dollar.
That is why I wish you joy instead. Joy is with me all the time and I want that for each of you. When you have joy, it's because you know who you are and whose you are. It doesn't mean that we are always happy or that we only experience good things. It means that with joy, those bad times are experienced with more strength and confidence because we know where to leave them [my favorite Scriptures are at this link] and that we have that joy that undergirds even those not-so-pleasant situations. There is a song we sing in the Baptist Church, This Joy I Have. Click here and enjoy Shirley Caesar's version. The main line in the refrain is "This joy I have, the world didn't give it and the world can't take it away."
Have joy in the new year, classmates. I can pray it for you. I cannot give it to you; your heart has to be open to the One who has gifted the world with this wonderful gift. Some of you know what I'm talking about. Others have yet to discover it. I promise that each one who wishes to receive it will live better and be better. As my husband says when we discuss things of a Spiritual matter, "That'll preach."
Your Classmate and SIC,
Kathy Michael
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