This month, when our dear editor, Paul Sherwood, asked us to write our articles with a focus on bring new possibilities and hope for the new year, I began to recall all of the recent conversations I’ve had with ordained colleagues in ministry, active lay leaders in our parishes, and on Diocesan Council.
One thing that everyone seems to agree on is that we are facing unprecedented, post-pandemic (if we are even in the “post” part of the pandemic yet!) challenges — across the board — in the parishes entrusted to our care. We are collectively tired and under great pressure to find new ways to be Church in the world.
Budget shortfalls. Lack of regular attenders returning to in-person worship. Borrowing from Peter to pay Paul by drawing on funds that we used to hold as untouchable in the past. Parishes are doing it. The Diocese is doing it. And it is not going to sustain us for the long term.
While reactionary solutions to complex existential church challenges may buy us some time in the short term, they will not save us in the long term.
It is God who has the plan for that.
It seems to me that one of the greatest dangers for us as Christians under all of this duress, is that we will lose our joy. And we know that our joy was at the heart of Jesus’s final prayer for us the night before His crucifixion, after he reminds those with Him in the Upper Room that they are called to embrace their mission in a world full of darkness and challenge:
“I’ve told you these things for a purpose: that my joy might be your joy, and your joy wholly mature.”
So, perhaps it’s time to stop — for a time — worrying about where the money will come from, or if we will survive this time, and start thinking about God’s hope for our life as God’s children on this planet in peril, which is built on the foundation of the JOY OF JESUS. As we find and center ourselves in that joy, nothing will be impossible for us.
When we start with the hope for joy that Jesus expressed for our life, there is but one conclusion to make:
JESUS WANTS THE MISSION HE ENTRUSTED TO OUR CARE TO SPARK JOY – IN OUR OWN SOULS AND IN THE WORLD
MEET MARIE KONDO
Which brings the chain of my thoughts to a beautiful, joy-filled Japanese woman named Marie Kondo. You have likely heard of her by now. She is a spritely spirit, has written four books on her tidying method (the Kon Mari Method) which have sold millions of copies around the world. And this January, as so many of us look for decluttering and organizing guidance from the experts, she will probably sell thousands more!
At the heart of her decluttering philosophy is one question: Does it spark joy?
In an article written for the Apartment Therapy blog, Nicoletta Richardson went on a mission to find the true meaning of the phrase “spark joy,” based on the translation of the original Japanese word:
spark joy, from the Japanese word tokimeku
Tokimeku (spark joy) has two definitions:
- Enjoy [be in] great prosperity; be prosperous; prosper; flourish; thrive; have one’s day; be powerful; be influential; be in power.
- Throb; palpitate; pulsate; pulse; beat fast.
– Nicoletta Richardson, “”Tokimeku Means So Much More than “Spark Joy” in Japanese,” on the Apartment Therapy Blog, January 9, 2020
As we face the challenges of these times, and try to find a way forward to fulfill the joy of Jesus, to regain our excitement for the mission of the Church, it seems to me that a little time spent asking the same question of each of our endeavours in the Church, will lead us straight back into the heart of Jesus, straight into the heart of God’s will for flourishing in our life together in community, and prosperous in our mission through community, to the world:
- Does it spark joy?
- Does this budget spark joy?
- This strategic plan spark joy?
- This fundraising effort spark joy?
- This gathering spark joy?
- This meeting spark joy?
And this is not to evade the hard work and reflection that we need to do, first. It will be our undoing if we try to blaze past the grief and pain of what we have lost and try to get straight to the joy in a hurry. Jesus’s joy was made complete on the other side of the brutal last days and hours of His earthly life.
To quote our beloved David Reid,
“It’s Friday, but Sunday’s a comin’!”
THE KON MARI METHOD
In her book entitled, Spark Joy: An illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up, Marie Kondo begins the section on her Six Rules of Tidying, with these words:
“The tidying process you are about to embark on is not about decluttering your house or making it look neat on the spur of the moment for visitors. Rather, you are about to tidy up in a way that will spark joy in your life and change it forever.” (p.3)
As a side note, she recommends taking at least 6 months to a year for the process. No rushing!
Followed by these Six Rules of Tidying (Spark Joy, pp. 3-8, with my additions after the dashes below):
- Commit yourself to tidying up – Revisit our Baptismal Covenant, the foundation of our joyful practices for God in the world.
- Imagine your ideal lifestyle – Imagine your ideal service of God’s mission in your life and the parish.
- Finish discarding first – Go into the grief, name what you need to give gratitude for from the past and let go of, to move into the joy of the future.
- Tidy by category, not location – Again, revisit the Baptismal Covenant and use our Baptismal Vows as headings for the “tidying” categories.
- Follow the right order – Jesus gave us His teaching on how to manifest for God in the world: Ask. Believe. Receive. (Read: Mark 11:22-25)
- Ask yourself if it sparks joy – as Jesus hoped for all of us.
DOES OUR MISSION AND MINISTRY SPARK JOY?
In the parish, the community, the world?
May we all do the hard work that leads us to spark joy and be changed forever.
WATCH MARIE KONDO EXPLAIN “SPARK JOY”
At the Wisdom 2.0 Conference in 2018
READ Spark Joy: An illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up
READ ARTICLE BY NICOLETTA RICHARDSON
https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/marie-kondo-tokimeku-spark-joy-translation-266496
I’ll see you back here in the February Issue!
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Photo Credit: Jonny Gios, Unsplash
If you need any help, assistance or resource suggestions to move through this time of post (?) pandemic, contact me directly at [email protected] and find me on social media @vocapeace.
