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What
does it look like to be ‘an explosion of joy’ in our community?
It
means choosing the third way of looking at the world. Not just the bad, not
just the good, but the potential for Redemption and Resurrection… in
Everything.
It
means living as people of Hope, who see beyond what is visible and base our
arguments on evidence that is yet to exist.
It
means Acceptance. An awareness not of what someone is now, but of what they can
be… and the grace and patience to help them get there.
It
means Art. It means Colour. It means going beyond the grey. Every shade of
everything in the spectrum between white and black mixing and matching,
complimenting and contrasting in inspiring, beautiful ways.
It
means council-commissioned mosaics and murals instead of crude, crass and
uncultured attempts at greed and ego-obsessed graffiti.
It
means safety for those who are abused. A space created where vulnerable victims
who fear their own ‘home’ can feel loved and truly say, ‘here Home truly is’.
It means
cakes, crafts and globally redistributed finances as locally we reuse goods and
a whole host of new relationships are, simultaneously, first forged.
It
means guerilla gardening. A different kind of ‘bombs’ being thrown as more than
one type of seed is sown- seedbombs, trees, trowels and topsoil the tools of
engagement as community intertwines with ecology. Simplicity that supersedes
consumption of technology.
It
means smiles offered to strangers. Peace and faith instead of fear. A friendly
nod or even a word of greeting instead of territorial, self-preserving glances
fleeting as we pass our nearby neighbours in the streets.
It
means Feast. Banquets of welcome. Hospitality and fellowship as old and new
alike, those we know and those whom as yet we don’t, are invited to join us for
abundant spreads of flavour and texture and Food, on more than one level- both
physical and spiritual.
It
means barbecues in the summertime to which random passers-by are, in fact, the
guests of honour.
It
means carol singing at Christmastime where the performance is portable and the
audience is anyone.
It
means Fun. Games with guidelines to govern creative expression of competing with
instead of
going into combat against. Camaraderie and comradeship as teams play the part of
enemies within the game and so become cooperative companions beyond it, in Real
Life.
It
means a channeling of children’s energy into relating positively with one
another as they cultivate collaboratively while adults watch on, themselves
more subtly being bonded into closer community.
It
means Music. Rhythm and rhyme no reason needing in every season, hopefulness
breeding, in space and time positivity breathing and creativity feeding.
Percussive backing beats and bold bass lines exuberant melodies meet in the
daytime, vibrant harmonies complete amidst rain, snow or sunshine and the
people on our streets, even if remaining outwardly still, inside they clap and
dance and sing and more they always will, as tempo rises and falls to the
movement of feet and symphonies stall then crescendo or simple choruses repeat.
And it all does flow out of sublime selfless goodwill, and People are so blessed their spines begin to chill.
It
means Diversity- the breadth of age, race, class and even overlaps of creed.
It means
Unity- a coming together, and each playing a part like the instruments of an
orchestra or the limbs of a body in any given endeavour to which we corporately
commit.
It
means Laughter. Jokes of which nobody is the butt. Stories, puns and recurring
references that do not malign anyone. A comedy of innocence. A purity of
humour. Laughter stemming from Good Reality rather than sordid slanderous
rumour.
It
means Reality. A conscience that consciously rejects cover-up fig leaves and
constantly seeks to live Open in Honesty.
It
means the presence of the living Lord in the here and now, the partial coming
of the Kingdom moving more towards the whole, and it’s citizens not just
physically, but spiritually Alive.
It
means more than half-heartedness and lacklustre mediocrity, more than a
compartmentalized, slice of the pie type faith that is merely one aspect to our
lives, more than the vague notion that by our own efforts we might maybe be
able to attain to something or see some slight level of change. It means faith
instead of fear, a burning desire to Life now and here, an unparalleled passion
and a cost-counting commitment. It means a closeness to the Author of life
itself, and an understanding of Redemption that gives us reason and capacity to
embody Resurrection and thus, to do, be and see these things.
This
is what it
really means to be ‘an explosion of joy’.
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