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Joy - Wintering 3

Teaching and Learning 26th November 2025

The first week (Wintering 1) I talked a bit about living OUT of the moment rather than IN it. This means being discerning with the gift of the present moment, where past and future meet, and growing in wisdom as we learn to use what’s lent to us.


Last week (Wintering 2) I talked a bit about emptying the box we have made of our lives, because we have filled it full of stuff, most of which we don’t need, and none of which we can take with us into the New Year and coming spring that is heaven, the resurrection life where we shall be oned completely with God. Indeed it’s not just the stuff we don’t need, we don’t need the box, because we’re not boxes, but matter that will be raised in glory.  And that emptying of the box requires wisdom so that we can discern what is necessary (because in this life some stuff is necessary!) and what is not, and to discern how to stop being a box!

And so this week we come to the last part of Psalm 90 where indeed we pray

So teach us to number our days :
that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

and go on to pray

Turn thee again, O Lord, at the last :
and be gracious unto thy servants.

O satisfy us with thy mercy, and that soon :
so shall we rejoice and be glad all the days of our life.


Living out of the moment, dispensing with the boxful of stuff and the box we have made of ourselves, isn’t a miserable thing, but quite the opposite. It is liberating, life giving and is deep joy.. so we can indeed be joyful.


There is a very old evangelical chorus I love… “Joy is the flag on the castle of my heart when the King is in residence there!”

It gives the whole game away, the stoutest box we can all build is indeed a castle. And how many of use live behind self defence, with battlements of anger and fear! But when Christ is in residence there has been a coup d’etat. Christ does not enter to shore up our defences, but to let down the draw bridge, disable the portcullis, knock the wood out of the loopholes and retire the army. And the flag he raises is Joy.


The thing about Joy is that it’s not about fun, or feeling giggly and frivolous. Those aren’t in themselves bad things, but they are transient and, finally, unfulfilling. But Joy is one of fruit of the Spirit according to Paul in Galatians… fruit is both firstly a gift, otherwise there could be nothing, but also then a fruit as we work with it, learn it, nurture it. And it grows inside us, if we will, so that, when it is fully grown, nothing in life can displace it. Joy remains even during times of pain and sorrow. That is remarkably difficult idea, of course. BUt I believe it is none the less true. This, I think, is what Mother Julian of Norwich learned in her illness so that she could say, “All shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.”

But this is the narrow road Jesus calls us to walk, and not everyone finds it. A box shaped "me", full of stuff, maybe seems more appealing..

So to end this little dip into Wintering… living out of the moment, emptying the box, and learning true joy through the ups and downs of life, all amount to growing in wisdom, becoming wise. And that's what Wintering is really all about. It is about slowing down, resting, letting go of buisness and achieving things. And this is NOT for other people, or special people, or saints, because there are no other people, only us, we are special people, we are the saints of God.

Let Godly wisdom be the handiwork of our wintering.

So to let the Psalmist end for us…

Comfort us again now after the time that thou hast plagued us : and for the years wherein we have suffered adversity.

Shew thy servants thy work : and their children thy glory.

And the glorious majesty of the Lord our God be upon us : prosper thou the work of our hands upon us, O prosper thou our handywork.



 

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