Joy - Present All the Same (a poem)

Care must be taken
Or joy 
     will be robbed
     of transforming power.

Joy is more than a
     transitory,
     momentary,
     circumstantial,
     egoic,
     fleeting,
feeling
     of happiness,
     of contentment.

Joy 
     lasts in spite of circumstance;
     dwells beyond individualistic self-centered feelings;
     cannot be possessed. 

Joy is born 
     with a vision of abundance 
          where once there was only fear of scarcity; 
     where more than enough bursts forth 
          where once there was only lack;
               in waters breaking forth in the wilderness;
               in streams found in the desert.

Joy calls us 
     toward difficult things.  

Joy asks us 
     to see the world differently; 
     to live in our world differently.

Joy speaks out 
     against not enough,
     against never will be,
through action. 

Joy is tied to 
     justice, 
     healing, 
     mercy,
     inclusion,
     equity,
     freedom
for all.

Joy 
     demands nothing less than 
          lifting up the lowly;
          filling the hungry with good things. 

Joy is a call for "as if" people 
     in a "not yet" and "maybe never" world.

Joy is a grand counter narrative 
     discovered through the working hands 
          of those who dare to rejoice in the desert 
     confident of the coming rain.

Joy has always been present,
     sometimes in hidden places,
but present all the same.

Joy to the world!

     The Lord is come.

  -- bshivers