Joy and Sadness
One of my favorite movies of this past year is Pixar’s “Inside Out”. As always Pixar delivers an animated movie that brings the laughs for the kids while at the same time delivering a much deeper, more complex message that resonates with adults. There is a scene in the movie where the character Joy (representing the emotion of the same name) confronts the character Sadness (representing the emotion of the same name) telling her not to touch anything. Joy views Sadness as constantly raining on her parade, dragging her down, taking away the happiness that she is creating.
Joy and Sadness. Two emotions that seem so different, at odds with one another, on opposite ends of the spectrum. Yet as the movie progresses, “Inside Out” begins to show that Joy and Sadness don’t conflict but compliment one another. Joy seems to uplift, it brings our life to this higher atmosphere of happiness, while Sadness helps with the falling down when the happiness seems to fade away.
That’s the reason I love this movie. So many times Joy is seen as this emotion that fixes everything. As soon as sadness enters our life through a disappointing experience, a broken relationship, an offensive comment, a bad day we often try to suppress our sadness with joy. Have a rough day? Watch a TV show that will uplift you. Go out for a nice dinner to fill you up. Have a glass of wine to suppress the sadness.
We often use Joy as the pill to take to help us get through the sadness. But joy doesn’t cover sadness. It’s sadness that helps us process the falling down and it’s through the times of sadness that we can find joy, not to fix our sadness but to fix our eyes that sadness isn’t the end but joy comes in the morning.
Psalm 30:5b
“Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.”
Through this season of Advent we aren’t suppressing our sadness with joy but we are adjusting our perspective. It’s in the season of waiting that we don’t look for a joy that will make our sadness disappear but it’s in the waiting that we sit in our sadness knowing joy is on its way.
The periods of sadness you are experiencing now don’t feel like they will last only a night. Many times the sadness you experience feels like the weeping will tarry for a lifetime. But it’s through this season of Advent that we confess, we live out, we realize that our sadness may tarry for a night or nights but we know joy comes with the morning. The wait for the morning sometimes last more than just a day, sometimes years, but no matter how long it is we know joy is coming, the morning is dawning through the arrival of Jesus Christ.
Let your weeping tarry, don’t suppress it with joy, but instead through your weeping keep your eyes fixed on the morning, joy is coming.
How are you looking for joy?
Scripture:
Psalm: Psalm 119:49–72
Old Testament: Zechariah 3:1–10
New Testament: Revelation 4:1–8
Gospel: Matthew 24:45–51
Prayer:
Give us grace, almighty Father, to address you with all our hearts as well as with our lips. You are present everywhere: from you no secrets can be hidden. Teach us to fix our thoughts on you, reverently and with love, so that our prayers are not in vain, but are acceptable to you, now and always, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
— Jane Austen
