lent 5 - delight

For the past year Ive been working part time for a local charity.  Mostly in the office but often bumping into the people the charity serves - which is basically anyone with any sort of need.  Last year a man started coming into the charity shop we run.  He was invariably very drunk and was sometimes needing a cup of coffee and a chance to sober up. Sometimes he was really unwell because he had forgotten to take his medication.  Sometimes he was less inebriated and wanted to talk properly about his life and how he wanted to stop drinking.  He was a really nice chap, but very broken.  At the time the charity really didnt have much to offer him except a cuppa and a listening ear.  We didnt have the resources or the expertise to tackle the addiction and all that entails.   Towards the end of last year he stopped coming into the shop so much.  We heard on the grapevine that he wasnt very well.  And then that he had been in hospital.  I really liked him and was so sad to think that at a relatively young age alcohol had pretty much ruined him.

And then there is an older lady who comes to the senior lunch club.  She has heart problems and a few weeks ago we heard she had had a suspected heart attack.  Everyone in the office stopped work to pray for her when we heard the news.   I dont know her terribly well, but I was as concerned as everyone else to hear she had been so unwell.  She is a character and a live wire and everyone misses her when she isnt around.

A few days after we heard about her heart attack I walked into the function room of the charity and there she was.  I was so not expecting to see her and was so happy that she looked fine that I spontaneously flung my arms round her and said '  Oh Im so happy to see you - we have been praying for you.  Are you OK?'    I suppose it wasnt terribly professional of me 😊 but I was genuinely delighted to see her.   She had tears in her eyes as she responded to my outburst of affection. It was a lovely moment.

Yesterday whilst standing at the door of a supermarket with a collecting bucket I saw my alcoholic friend.  He looked really well.  He was clean and tidy and well shaven.  I was, again, absolutely delighted to see him - I had really thought he might either have been at death's door - or perhaps even been on the other side of that door.   He grinned when he saw me and told me that he had not had a drink for three months.  More joy.  It made my day to hear that, and to see him again doing so much better.

Delight.

Ive experienced it twice in the past couple of weeks.  It is hard to put into words exactly what it is - a mixture of surprised joy, genuine happiness. There is something pure and simple about delight.  It bypasses thought processes and sort of kidnaps your heart. Delight has to be expressed.  You can't be secretly delighted.  It shows on your face and in your eyes.  It seeps out in your words and actions. Delight is an active thing.  Effervescent. Alive.

The Bible exhorts us to delight in the Lord.  And it also tells us that He delights in us.
What might it look like for you to experience that childlike, illogical ,surging joy about Jesus today?  And how does it feel to know that His heart skips a beat and He breaks into a grin of pure pleasure when He catches sight of you?