Living Story Grace

Saturday I picked up a book that’s been hiding on my shelf for a while.  It’s about enjoying God.  It’s called Desiring God.  John Piper writes about “Christian Hedonism,” saying that Christians were made to seek pleasure, to desire God, to enjoy God, and in enjoying Him, to worship Him, to live for Him and in living this way, to take pleasure from life.  Here’s a little snippet.  I’ve broken Piper’s paragraph into sentences, so we can concentrate on each point.

⁷ But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. ²⁸ He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, ²⁹ so that no one may boast before him.” I Cor. 1:27-29

“Christian Hedonism combats pride because it puts man in the category of an empty vessel beneath the fountain of God.  It guards us from the presumption of trying to be God’s benefactors.

Philanthropists can boast.

Welfare recipients cannot.

The primary experience of Christian Hedonism is need.

When a little, helpless child is being swept off his feet by the undercurrent on the beach and his father catches him just in time, the child does not boast; he hugs.”

Where do you feel strong today?  What do you need?

Revisiting John Piper’s Desiring God.

“The great hindrance to worship is not that we are a pleasure-seeking people, but that we are willing to settle for such pitiful pleasures.

The prophet Jeremiah put it like this:

My people have exchanged their glory for that which does not profit.  Be appalled O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, says the Lord; for my people have committed two evils:  they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. (Jeremiah 2:11-13)

The heavens are appalled and shocked when people give up so soon on their quest for pleasure and settle for broken cisterns.”

Dear Lord,

Help us to come before you, not just tomorrow, but every day, seeking the joys of being with you, of knowing you, of knowing how much you love us, how completely you have forgiven us, how fully you have graced us.  Let us rest in the realities of who you are and enjoy you and all of your good gifts to us without wanting to replace you with them.

With the joy you grow in us, we pray,

Amen.