Any Junior Bake Off fans out there? I’ve been catching up on the latest series and stumbled across something very profound that gave me cause to pause.
Obviously, in a competition people enter because they want to win and it can be hugely disappointing to have to leave. I think even more so when you have worked hard to produce something personal like cake (same applies to music/art/sewing/pottery). There’s something about creating something with your own hands and then having that judged and deemed not as good as another’s that can be deeply personal. So I could relate to one young girl who was voted off and was devasted.
But in her interview afterwards she said something very wise. She said “I never knew I could be so sad. But then I never knew I could be so happy.”
Can anyone else relate to this? Some times in life where we have felt at our worst are linked with times that have also brought greatest of memories? I can immediately think of losing a loved one. The grief can be hard to bear, but for my part I’d rather feel the grief and also carry the joy and memories of having known that person than have not experienced that joy.
And I guess to me, my faith is a little like that. There have been times when I have said to myself ‘I didn’t know I could feel so much pain’. But the thing that has kept me pushing through has been the memories of more joy than I knew was possible too. But unlike getting knocked out of a competition or dealing with loss, I believe that in faith, the sadness is not the end. I believe there is always hope for bigger joys.
There is a verse in one of the Psalms (Psalm 30 v 5) which says ‘Tears may last through the night but joy comes in the morning’. It flips things around – sadness does not follow joy, but rather joy will always follow sadness.
I think Peter could relate to this too. Told by Jesus to throw his net over the other side of the boat he caught more fish than he had ever caught. Ok, Jesus, you have his attention. Called to follow Jesus and become a ‘fisher of men’, Peter’s journey is extraordinary. He experiences extraordinary things as part of a group and as an individual. He is there when water is turned into wine, and when at least 5000 people are fed. He is on the mountain top when Jesus is transfigured and claimed and when Moses and Elijah appear. He then offers to build them tents… Maybe missing the point? He gets out of the boat and walks on water. And almost sinks (except Jesus rescues him). He gets renamed because he recognises Jesus as the Messiah, and in the next breath tries to convince Jesus not to go to Jerusalem, and is rebuked by Jesus. And then, at the end, he falls asleep, runs away and denies Jesus three times. Massive highs, massive lows.
Except that’s not the end, because Jesus rises from the grave and appears to the disciples. And at the end of John’s gospel there is a passage about how Jesus restores Peter by giving him a chance to affirm Jesus three times. It doesn’t end in sorrow, it ends in joy.
I know that’s not the end of Peter’s story. I know Peter is martyred. But Jesus promises that he will show the way to the Father, to heaven. Death wasn’t the end for Jesus, and it’s there that the greatest of all joys exists.
My journey of faith started with experiencing a bigger joy than I had ever known, and I believe it will end with more joy than I can ever imagine. And along the way there have been some hugely low points, but there have been some moments of just soaring freedom I didn’t know was possible. But it’s the hope of more joy that keeps me pressing on when trouble hits, the memories of what I have experienced and the promise of more to come.
Tears may last through the night but joy comes in the morning
The Reason for my Hope Blog 