I think it was only a matter of time (perhaps I was just starving for someone to disagree with), but I sort of took issue with one of the principles that our chaplain talked to us about during our discipleship time last week. The principle is called “Holy Sweat” and describes how our goal as Christians should be to pursue godliness, as opposed to happiness, and the way we can get there is to make decisions and work really hard to attain Christ-like behavior and attitude. I just wish that there would be mention of affections rather than decisions, grace instead of self will, and pursuing our highest happiness—an intimate relationship with a God that provides obedience as the surest way to be joyful—instead of pursuing a self made good Christian.
John Piper explains this last viewpoint very well in his book Dangerous Duty of Delight
Quoting Jonathan Edwards, “God is glorified not only by His glory’s being seen, but by its being rejoiced in. When those that see it delight in it, God is more glorified than if they only see it. His glory is then received by the whole soul, both by the understanding and by the heart. God made the world that He might communicate, and the creature receive, His glory; and that it might be received both by the mind and heart. He that testifies his idea of God’s glory doesn’t glorify God so much as he that testifies also his delight in it.”
C.S. Lewis also expounds on this idea in his book The Weight of Glory:
“If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promise of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong but too weak. We are half hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
Also from Lewis regarding praise as the consummation of joy in what we admire:
“The most obvious fact about praise—whether of God or anything—strangely escaped me…I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise…lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favorite poet, walkers praising the countryside…my whole, more general, difficulty about the praise of God depended on my absurdly denying to us, as regards the supremely Valuable, what we delight to do, what indeed we cannot help but doing, about everything else we value.”
This talk of affections is what helps to change my heart, and I would presume the hearts of many other people in contrast to a teeth clenching decision to try harder to attain godliness. Why not use what comes naturally to us in our favor? If I see a movie I enjoy or read a book I learned a lot from, or see an athlete in a game that makes me stand out of my chair and cheer, I do not hold that close to myself hoping that no one else will be able to enjoy it. Whenever I see a good movie, hear a great song, or experience any other fleeting joy I instantly want others to enjoy it too. This spreading of my own joy is praise and witness. If this joy can be first experienced within me, and Jesus Christ becomes the whole of my affections and my treasure, then I don’t think I will have to devise any sort of strategies or 3 step programs to discover how to praise Him or tell others about Him.
Jonathan Edwards stated that, “true religion, in great part, consists of the affections.” This is in contrast to a Christian life lived by making decisions. Edwards points to 1 Peter 1:8 to make this point, “Though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.”
Making decisions can still be attained though a person’s heart is far from God. But speaking of affections gets right to the heart of the matter. I think that in my own life my affections lie elsewhere, and my sources of joy are broken cisterns. This is why I feel dry and empty when I succeed in those areas, and disgusted when I fail. I’m trying to find happiness, meaning and purpose outside of Jesus Christ. It should not affect my pursuit of joy when I don’t pitch as much as I want, or even as good as I want. As a Christian, those things should not be determining factors in regards to my joy.
2 comments:
Good Thoughts Steve, I find myself having broken cisterns everywhere. When the stake is delight and not just decide it raises the bar, but also makes it worth striving for even more. Sorry my name is jayhawks and not Rob but all instructions were in Japanese so I thought it was my password.
Good stuff Steve. I agree that it is frustrating when our faith becomes steps to do and things to adhere to. Especially since that seems contradictory to what true saving faith is like and isn't what we have seen in our own lives bring us closer to God. I have felt that frustration.
I hope to post within the next two days. I was in Anaheim for a week with very limited access to the internet so that deterred my activity.
Sneak peak: What is our role in our decision about what we want to do/live and if/how we pursue relationships/ministries we already have? I'll expound more later, but this week I felt like living somewhere other than KC to start real life.
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