Advent began yesterday. I love this season, and I intend to spend it joyfully. I have been contemplating this idea all week: Since God sent his Son to be with us and be our Savior, our reasonable response is joy.
Wendell Berry wrote, “Be joyful though you have considered all the facts.”* There is so much injustice and hurt in the world, and we cannot ignore that. Still, as we reach out and love our neighbors, we can be joyful. I think maybe I’m preaching a bit, but I am preaching to myself. Too often I think that it is not right for me to be happy when there is so much sadness all around. But when I consider all the facts, joy wins. Because I believe that, along with all the news stories, this also is a fact:
God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.
With this in mind, all week I have been singing the chorus to “Joy Is In Our Hearts” by Sara Groves. You can listen to the whole song on her MySpace page. This song is dedicated to International Justice Mission. I think it is a great example of considering all the facts, reaching out in love, and being joyful. “For good reason, joy is in our hearts.”
I have also been repeating these lines from the poem “The Vision of the Shepherds” by W.H. Auden. By the way, Auden’s For the Time Being: A Christmas Oratorio is excellent Advent reading. You can find it in collections of Auden’s poetry. (I don’t think it is sold as a separate volume anymore.) I love whole poem, but here is the part I’ve been thinking about especially:
CHORUS OF ANGELS 
Unto you a Child,
A Son is given.
Praising, proclaiming
The ingression of Love,
Earth’s darkness invents
The blaze of Heaven,
And frigid silence
Meditates a song;
For a great joy has filled
The narrow and the sad,
While the emphasis
Of the rough and big,
The abiding crag
And wandering wave,
Is on forgiveness:
Sing Glory to God
And good-will to men,
All, all, all of them.
Run to Bethlehem.
SHEPHERDS
Let us run to learn
How to love and run;
Let us run to Love.
*The Wendell Berry quote is from “Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front,” The Country of Marriage, 1973.
