It’s the little things, really.
A mid-afternoon visit to a seaside castle. A jog in the park on a rare sunny day. A great novel scooped up in a charity shop for only £2. Seeing family (and pets) over Skype every week. Homemade pies from the local farmers market. A warm bubble bath on a cold Scottish day. Finding a little gem of a Mexican restaurant in our neighborhood. The sun setting beneath the Edinburgh skyline. Sharing meals and coffee and wine with friends. Marveling at the tides on an island in the Firth of Forth. Praying with and for a colleague. Crafting the most perfect Cinnamon Ciabatta French Toast for Saturday brunch.
These are the kinds of simple pleasures that have dominated our days over the last month, and I can’t think of a better start to any year than this one. When I read a blog post by our friend Will last week, it all made sense. He quoted part of an interview between Harvard Business Review writer Gardiner Morse and Professor Daniel Gilbert, and the more I think about it, the more true this theory rings in my own life, and probably in yours.
“The psychologist Ed Diener has a finding I really like. He essentially shows that the frequency of your positive experiences is a much better predictor of your happiness than is the intensity of your positive experiences. Somebody who has a dozen mildly nice things happen each day is likely to be happier than than somebody who has a single truly amazing thing happen. So wear comfortable shoes, give your wife a big kiss, sneak a French fry. It sounds like small stuff, and it is. But the small stuff matters.
We are learning and will continue to learn how to maximise our happiness. But that still leaves the big question: “What kind of happiness should we want”?
Science will soon be able to tell us how to live the lives we want, but it will never tell us the kind of lives we should want to live. That will be for us to decide.”
Have you read Shel Silverstein’s book The Giving Tree?
It’s a beautiful story about the relationship between a young boy and a tree, one that lasts until the boy is an old man. It’s a story full of deep truths about need and sacrifice, love and friendship, life and death.
When we began planning for our Give It Away Advent Series last month, it was Shel’s beloved story that inspired an entirely different sort of Giving Tree. Comprised of four inter : mission worship hours and a special Christmas concert, the series was in aid of the Methodist Relief and Development Fund: a charity that works in African, Asian, and Latin American communities to empower its members and bring about long-term change. So, on every branch of our Giving Tree hung a small fabric bag corresponding with a specific MRDF project.
(photos by the talented Will Carroll)
As the Giving Tree sat in the sanctuary of the church over those weeks, someone took notice. Our friend Lyn Smalridge is a part of a prayer group that meets on Thursday evenings; during a time of quiet, of talking and listening, thanking and interceding, God reached into Lyn’s heart and drew out words. And boy, are we glad he had the courage to write them down!
We want to share Lyn’s poem with you, because it’s not just for Advent or Christmas or any one season. It’s a story full of deep truths about need and sacrifice, love and friendship, life and death.
On Its Branches
Look! A tree - A giving tree.
On its branches hang -
Colourful sacks,
For gifts of money
To change lives elsewhere.
In our love,
May we give as generously as our hearts direct
And pockets allow.
Look! A tree - A dying tree.
On its branches hangs -
A young man.
The gift of His life
To change our lives for ever.
Giving His all,
In His love
That we might receive
Forgiveness, reconciliation and love.
Look! A tree - A living tree
On its branches hangs -
Our lives.
The gift of this life,
Day by day.
With all its joys and sorrows.
In our love,
May we be rooted firmly in God
And grow in rich relationship with Him.
Look! A tree - A Christmas tree
On its branches hangs -
Lights and baubles.
The gift of Christmas
Joy and celebration.
A baby born.
In His love,
God with us forever.
May we welcome Him into our hearts.
It’s almost Christmas, and we have a gift for you: FREE MUSIC!
We, along with our friend Andy the Cellist, have recorded an arrangement of the classic carol “O Come, All Ye Faithful,” and we’re here to deliver it through your virtual chimney just in time for Christmas.
Click on the cover art to listen, and enter your information for a free download. Then (and this is the most important step): share it! Send it on to friends, family, colleagues, and the like. Tweet it. Facebook it. Share the love.
And as the song pipes through cars and computers and earbuds, we’ll find joy in knowing that we’re all humming along together that resounding refrain:
O come let us adore Him,
O come let us adore Him,
O come let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.
