I wrote about it here<\/a>) and presents the idea of a stubborn gladness. Gladness is a deep experience, as the fruit of the Spirit – Joy, and has its source within us. Its source is that place in us that the apostle Paul describes as Christ in us, the hope of glory (Col. 1:27). The place that is the core of our authentic self.<\/p>\nStubborn in that we obstinately refuse to capitulate to the “ruthless furnace of this world.” Kicking and screaming, if necessary, contending for the stubborn gladness in the midst of all of life – the good, bad and ugly.<\/p>\n
In his poem, Gilbert calls us to look for wonder and its gladness wherever we find it. In the sunrise, the stripes of a tiger, the laugh of a child, a song, a piece of art, a flower or forest. We reorient the way in which we see, or we look while rooting inward to that which will genuinely satisfy. We practice a new way of being, awareness, and living while resisting the pressure to succumb to this darkness.<\/p>\n
We can cultivate stubborn life-giving gladness. Each time we choose to tenaciously seek things for which we can be grateful we orient our self to the Light allowing gladness to arise in us. Yes, sometimes this takes a lot of work. This is why we need some faithful, forgiving friends to encourage us, and for us to encourage them. Over time this precious gift finds roots deeper in our life, with roots that can sustain us with life-giving gladness in the midst of the desert season or\u00a0life’s crisis’.<\/p>\n
Jack Gilbert’s poem:<\/h2>\n
A Brief Defense<\/strong><\/p>\nSorrow everywhere. Slaughter everywhere. If babies
\nare not starving someplace, they are starving
\nsomewhere else. With flies in their nostrils.
\nBut we enjoy our lives because that’s what God wants.
\nOtherwise, the mornings before summer dawn would not
\nbe made so fine. The Bengal tiger would not
\nbe fashioned so miraculously well. The poor women
\nat the fountain are laughing together between
\nthe suffering they have known and the awfulness
\nin their future, smiling and laughing while somebody
\nin the village is very sick. There is laughter
\nevery day in the terrible streets of Calcutta,
\nand the women laugh in the cages of Bombay.
\nIf we deny our happiness, resist our satisfaction,
\nwe lessen the importance of their deprivation.
\nWe must risk delight. We can do without pleasure,
\nbut not delight. Not enjoyment. We must have
\nthe stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless
\nfurnace of this world. To make injustice the only
\nmeasure of our attention is to praise the Devil.
\nIf the locomotive of the Lord runs us down,
\nwe should give thanks that the end had magnitude.
\nWe must admit there will be music despite everything.
\nWe stand at the prow again of a small ship
\nanchored late at night in the tiny port
\nlooking over to the sleeping island: the waterfront
\nis three shuttered caf\u00e9s and one naked light burning.
\nTo hear the faint sound of oars in the silence as a rowboat
\ncomes slowly out and then goes back is truly worth
\nall the years of sorrow that are to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I was speaking with a friend today who was expressing indignation at a particularly twisted bit of theology. \u00a0It was one of those things one can only shake one’s head, with mouth agape in wonderment, at such profound theological abuse. I found that in reading it, I had no energy to be outraged. \u00a0Yes, it…","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":13375,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[63,71,78,655,87,654,167,179,553],"class_list":["post-13372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sole-significance","tag-balance","tag-big-picture","tag-burnout","tag-burnt-out","tag-casting-vision","tag-chronic-outrage","tag-everyday-spirituality","tag-faith-in-real-life","tag-wholeness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}