Pure Joy

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MIMO PEREZ

“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” ( John 3:17)

The village boys were pleading. They needed one more player to complete the three challenges. I said yes, even if I thought it was silly.  I’m referring to the makeshift basketball ring attached to an overgrown mango tree. Everything was a smaller version of the real thing, from the board to the basket to the ball.

I didn’t imagine it would be such a delight.

Because it was small, I could easily grab the ball with one hand. And since the board was hanging way below the standard height, I had no difficulty reaching for the basket.  Suddenly, it was no longer impossible to execute acrobatic shots the likes of my idol Michael Jordan does. Since everything was adjusted, playing basketball wasn’t only easy—it was pure joy!

As someone who provides psycho-spiritual support to individuals and groups, I am constantly invited to grow in vulnerability and empathy.  Not an easy task to be at home with my brokenness and limitations. But doing so enables me to become more welcoming of others’ joys and pains, hopes and fears, griefs, and anxieties.

Indeed, love—great love—more than knowledge and skills, is what empowers one to be a channel of healing and growth for others.

God shows us how. He meets us where we are and goes down to our level. He adjusts himself to us even if he doesn’t have to because he’s already complete and perfect.

But this is precisely why God, as perfect love is a saving God. He willingly abandoned his heavenly dwelling so that he may share with our imperfect human condition.  As a consequence, every time we encounter each other in love, we discover that in each of us, there lies a “savior.”

The fragment of the Divine dwelling within us is what enables us to see beyond life’s limits and discover pure joy.

Contor: MIMO PEREZ, Consciousness Expansion Guide