By Heather Melton (she/her), UTO Staff Officer

Many of you know that I start my day at my desk going through my prayer list for which you send me prayer requests and updates, and this helps me keep the discipline going. Sometimes I’m good at Morning Prayer, but most of the time, I’m just saying prayers for the folks on the list and the things on my heart, as well as favorite prayers from the UTO Book of Prayers or Book of Common Prayer. It feels like my list has gotten quite long these days and the section on gratitude quite small. There’s an elementary teacher in New Orleans who posts funny videos about things kids have said to him, silly observations about the world around him, or personal things he’s working on in his life. He ends every video by saying, “Find your joy.” I absolutely love this idea. We can wait around for joy to find us, or we can actively seek it out. I don’t know about you, but joy often helps me find reasons to give thanks.

As Lent was coming to an end, I decided it was time to find my joy again, and wow, I found it. I found it in small things, like watching a group of kids engage with an activity during our new Vacation Bible School program and get curious about how to make it even better, which of course they did! I found it at the bus stop, when one of the small ones was struggling and chose to connect with me about Super Mario games before finding their joy for the day. I found it at the elementary school, where a kiddo lit up when telling me how grateful they are for their teacher and a kindergartener mentioned she’s most grateful to finally be able to read.

But perhaps the place that brought me the most joy was the most unexpected—a Banana Ball game. For those that know me, sports are not my thing. While I attended every football game at my high school and college, I could not tell you anything about football (I was there to play in the band), so imagine my surprise when I found my joy watching baseball. If you’ve never heard of Banana Ball, I hope you’ll look it up. There are a ton of fun videos online. Banana Ball was created to make baseball fun again, and let me just say, I think they found their joy. The players dance, joke around, and play a sport they clearly love. Fans sing, dance, and cheer for both teams. The stadium is filled with joy. The outreach arm of the organization is called “Bananas Foster” and they support foster families. At our game, they brought out a single foster mom from our town who has hosted over 20 children and adopted three of them. She was surrounded by her family as she came onto the field to cheers of gratitude from the stands. They also recognized our local heroes, from firefighters to teachers, sparking more gratitude from the crowd. Imagine my surprise when I got home to find an email from the Party Animals team that included a handwritten note from one of the players thanking us for coming out to support the team and sharing what it meant to him to be able to play baseball. Leaving the stadium (after the dance party and autograph signing), I realized that was the most joy-filled place I’ve been to in a long time, and I think everyone there needed that. I know I needed it.

I think one of the challenges of challenging times is not forgetting to find your joy. It’s in moments of joy that we’re reminded of that great Desmond Tutu quote: “Somewhere deep inside us, we seem to know that we are destined for something better than strife.” God has called us to live a life filled with joy and love. Sometimes the brokenness of the world makes that seem hard to do and we don’t want to become deaf to the suffering of others, but even in the midst of strife, we need to find our joy because joy connects us to hope, love, and God. Joy becomes gratitude, gratitude becomes connection, and connection becomes our way through the strife. I hope you’ll spend some time this month finding your joy—just don’t forget to give thanks when you do.