Letting Joy Stay at the Table

The food is set between you.

Steam rising.

Plates arranged with care.

Music low enough to talk over.

Nothing urgent waiting outside the table.

Just two people lingering.

Many of us learned to rush joy.

To enjoy quickly.

To downplay pleasure.

To keep scanning for the next responsibility even while something good is happening.

Shrinking often sneaks into happiness.

It whispers that you should not linger.

That contentment is irresponsible.

That rest must always be justified.

But Christ keeps giving people moments like this.

Tables where nothing has to be solved.

Conversations that do not need managing.

Food that can simply be tasted.

Stopping shrinking sometimes looks like letting goodness remain.

Not cutting the evening short.

Not apologizing for delight.

Not narrating gratitude as though it must earn permission.

There are seasons when joy feels fragile.

When you brace for it to disappear.

When receiving good things makes you anxious instead of grateful.

Jesus notices that posture too.

He attends weddings.

He reclines at tables.

He allows perfume to be poured without rebuke.

He blesses abundance in ordinary rooms.

If tonight all you can manage is to stay seated instead of rushing back into productivity, that counts.

If you savor instead of scanning, that is healing.

If you meet the eyes across from you and stay present, that is worship.

Joy does not make you irresponsible.

It makes you human.

Christ is not trying to remove delight from your life.

He is teaching you how to remain inside it.