Spark Joy!

During the height of the pandemic, I watched a few episodes of a Netflix show called, “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo”.
If you’ve watched it, you probably already know the phrase “spark joy!”, which she uses to help people declutter their belongings.
As you declutter your wardrobe or your garage, as you are touching and feeling the items that you have bought or gotten as a gift, certain memories come back and it “sparks joy”.
On the flip side, there could be things that don’t spark joy, maybe worse, it brings back memories that you wished you never experienced. But even the bad memories, are processed through “tidying up” and there’s a happy ending to it.

The show continues with this concept and helps people find happiness and joy by living a “simpler” life, along with an organized, clean living area, a welcomed side-effect of this process.
If you need motivation to clean up the cluttered areas of your home or your office, this show will do the trick.

As the theme for this month is “Joy”, I wonder what “sparks joy” for you, Youngnak.

The pandemic has forced us to be introspective and to be grateful for the “normal” things that we took for granted.

Family gatherings.
Sports competitions.
Small Groups.
And even our beloved Youngnak Church.

It has been and it is still difficult to return back to our way of life pre-pandemic, but things seem to be improving.

And I think it’s at this particular moment that we need to “reset” or “remind” ourselves of the joy we find in Christ, similar to how the Israelites were reminded and renewed their covenant before the Lord, as they were about to enter the Promised land.

So, let me ask you, Youngnak, “What sparks joy for you at our church?”

Because we all know that there are things that definitely do not “spark joy” at our church.

For example, finding a parking spot.

I remember when I started serving at Youngnak in the December of 2013, I was so happy when I was able to find a parking spot at the Barranca lot.

It was quite stressful to find parking and I sympathized with all of you in terms of the difficulties of finding a parking spot at our church.

But during the pandemic, whenever I drove to church to record my sermons, or to do a livestream broadcast, even though it was convenient to park right next to the building, there was sadness in my heart seeing all the empty spots.

What sparks joy for me as we re-open the past couple of months has been the parking lot.

Every time I have to park further and further away, it sparks joy in my heart, seeing Youngnak come alive once again.

We are Youngnak Church.  Our name literally means, “Eternal Joy” in Jesus Christ.

So, as we greet one another once again, as we resume our gatherings once again, may we all “declutter” ourselves and our church of all the things that do not spark joy for Christ and to find, once again at Youngnak Church, the eternal joy that only comes through knowing Christ.

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