We all prefer to hear about joys than about woes. We like affirmation rather than challenge. But like two sides of a coin, they’re inextricably linked.

How much better food tastes when we’re hungry! The meal I remember enjoying the most was a sandwich late at night when I hadn’t eaten for most of the day. And a glass of water is the finest champagne to someone with a great thirst.

Without woes we don’t experience joy. ‘Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh,’ said Jesus. We’ll enjoy laughter all the more when we know what it was like to be without it, when we couldn’t manage so much as a smile.

Jesus isn’t telling us to make ourselves miserable so that one day we will be happy. He’s telling us that whatever we have to put up with in this life, it will be made up to us in heavenly joy.

My brother had a hard time when he was younger, he had many woes. He lost a leg in an accident, became addicted to drugs, and had trouble with relationships. He didn’t begin to follow Jesus until he was thirty. That was when he began to experience joy. He often quotes the prophet Joel: “I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten: (Joel 2:25). Now in his seventies, he’s still a committed Christian, appreciating and enjoying the spiritual fruit which we’re given.

So why did Jesus have to go on to woes? Why should those who are full now be hungry later? Why shouldn’t we aim to have others speak well of us?

I think it’s all about our attitudes, and what is most likely to lead us astray. If we’re only thinking about ourselves, what we eat and drink, and not considering others who are hungry, or the welfare of the animals farmed to produce our food, or the methods used which harm the soil, the water and the atmosphere, then we’ve gone astray, and we will regret it one day.

If we’re feeding our vanity on the compliments and accolades of others, we’ve gone astray, and we will regret it one day.

As Paul says in his letter to the Corinthians, if we don’t believe that resurrection comes after death, then our faith is futile. We must see that every aspect of our lives will be under scrutiny when we stand face to face with Jesus.

Christianity isn’t only about joy, it’s about real life in this world, and in how we live it. Woes are the other side of the coins we hold, sometimes face up. But when we grasp that Jesus’s head is on the other side, we know that joy will remain. Amen.

Julie Rubidge, Lay Minister.