You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘Enjoying God’ tag.
J.I. Packer died about a year ago on July 17. His writings and online sermons meant a lot to me and helped me grow in the Christian faith. Below are some quotes that are meaningful to me, and I hope will be to you as well.
We are cruel to ourselves if we try to live in this world without knowing about the God whose world it is and who runs it. The world becomes a strange, mad, painful place, and life in it a disappointing and unpleasant business, for those who do not know about God. Disregard the study of God, and you sentence yourself to stumble and blunder through life blindfolded, as it were, with no sense of direction and no understanding of what surrounds you. This way you can waste your life and lose your soul.
Every Christian’s life-purpose must be to glorify God. This is the believer’s official calling. Everything we say and do, all our obedience to God’s commands, all our relationships with others, all the use we make of the gifts, talents, and opportunities that God gives us, all our enduring of adverse situations and human hostility, must be so managed as to give God honor and praise for his goodness to those on whom he sets his love (1 Cor. 10:31; cf. Matt. 5:16; Eph. 3:10; Col. 3:17). Equally important is the truth that every Christian’s full-time employment must be to please God. . . . Pleasing God in everything must be our goal (2 Cor. 5:9; Col. 1:10; 1 Thess. 2:4; 4:1)
What Scripture says, God says; for, in a manner comparable only to the deeper mystery of the incarnation, the Bible is both fully human and fully divine.
There’s a difference between knowing God and knowing about God. When you truly know God, you have energy to serve Him, boldness to share Him, and contentment in Him.
Life with Mikey (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
My ten year old daughter Tifani had broken the rules and needed to be punished. I don’t remember what offense she had committed. I just remember looking at her, shaking my head, letting her know that she had disappointed me by breaking the rules and that she was going to be punished. She looked up at me with big, sad eyes and said, “I’m bad. I know it. Daddy, I need help.”
When I heard her utter those words I burst out laughing, all my anger gone, knowing that my budding little actress had obviously picked up this line from some movie she had watched. All thoughts of punishment had disappeared and I asked her where she had heard those words, “I’m bad. I know it. I need help.”
She had recently watched a movie called LIFE WITH MIKEY, and in this movie, a young girl about Tifani’s age was a pickpocket on the streets of New York. She gets caught and an angry man accuses her of stealing his wallet. A small crowd gathers around her. Michael Chapman (Michael J. Fox) shows up. He had just had his wallet stolen by this same girl. He is the head of a child talent agency, and is always looking for new talent. He sees the way that this girls is playing the crowd, and realizes that she is a natural. He intervenes, telling everyone that she is his daughter. Crocodile tears pour down her pretty little face and she exclaims, “I’m bad. I know it. Daddy, I need help.”
She made the confession, “I’m bad. I know it. I need help”, not out of any realization of her true nature, but in the hope that people would feel sorry for her, give her a break and let her go.
Her words, though, have great significance for those who want to enjoy God. The life of enjoying God begins with the startling revelation that we are all bad. That we really and truly Know that we are bad and that without help, we are doomed.
This thought, for many, is the hardest part of enjoying God. In fact, it seems ridiculous! When confronted with the possibility that we might be bad, we immediately present our first list of all the good things we do. We give to charitable organizations and donate time to worthy causes and don’t beat our wives or children and work hard at the office and never cheat or steal.
Our second list is made up of truly bad people like murderers, rapists, thieves and those who cheat on their spouses and take advantage of the poor. We can always point to those who are really bad and thus exonerate ourselves.
Everyone has their own categories of who is bad and what is bad and we certainly don’t fall into any of those categories. But, the category that matters most, is God’s category. Since He is the one we want to enjoy, and it is He that gives the joy, it is His standard of Good and Bad that we need to take a look at.
In the Bible God reveals His character and ours. He shows us His standard of goodness and also how far removed we are from that standard. The Bible tells us in no uncertain terms that because we do not live up to His standard of Goodness that we are His enemies (Rom. 5:10). Indeed, we are dead in our badness. Dead in our sins as Paul puts it Ephesians 2. Sin is just another word for bad, a type of bad that utterly offends a perfect God, and totally blocks our any chance of enjoying God. In Romans 3:12, Paul quotes Ecclesiastes 7:20 saying, “All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” Even the good deeds we do, the random acts of kindness we perform, the rewards we receive for helping others, are all a stench in the nostrils of God, if done apart from being in right relationship with him.
Help Is Available
This is where the Good News comes in. We can’t enjoy the God the Good News if we don’t first understand the bad news. The bad news is that we are bad. The Good News is that help is available!
The last phrase the girl pickpocket declared when confronted by the angry victim was, “I need help.” She was insincere in her claim of needing help. If we truly believe from the bottom of our hearts, that we re bad and desperately need help, God is more than willing to come to our aid and rescue us.
I lived in Sonoma County, California, for a number of years. There were a few years that we experienced terrible flooding. I lived close to the RussianRiver and during a particularly bad flood many of the residents were surrounded by high water and had to be helicoptered to safety. Those residents recognized they were in a bad way and were glad to be helped.
I remember one especially dramatic photograph that appeared in the local paper. A man was being rescued from the raging river by a fireman who was in the river with him. The fireman was roped to other firemen standing on the bank. The drowning man was rescued and the photographer went on to win a Pulitzer prize for the photo.
When we come to a point where we realize that we are drowning spiritually, when we realize that joy, peace and contentment are not the hallmarks of our lives, and that the turbulent waters of depression, disappointment, frustration, anger and disillusion threaten to overwhelm us, and we call out to a merciful, compassionate and gracious God (Daddy), He will rescue us!
In a way, God is like the fireman who jumped into the river to save the drowning man. God jumped into our hopeless, helpless situation, into our badness, in the person of Jesus Christ. And all those who became aware of their badness, and followed this God/Man Jesus were rescued, and are still being rescued and given new lives. Lives filled with joy in God and delight at being delivered from the turbulent flood called existence, and brought onto the safe shore called Life. Life enjoying God.
Some, like many of the religious leaders of Jesus day, didn’t realize how dire their plight was, and chose to cling to the slippery and perilous branches called self-righteousness and good works. They perished without ever experiencing the joy of knowing God.
Bad Gunky
Unfortunately, that isn’t the end of doing bad things. While we celebrate and rejoice that our Bad Existence was put to death by Jesus, we still struggle with doing bad things. Martin Luther said we are at the same time righteous and sinners and that we continue to wrestle daily with the World, the Flesh, and the Devil. I call these things Bad Gunky. In Stephen King’s novel LISEYS STORY, one of the main characters explains to his wife, Lisey, all about bad gunky. As a child he lived with his father and older brother. At various times they were attacked by what his father called “bad gunky”. This was an evil presence that would, without warning, fill either the father or one of his sons with a violent anger that would cause them to want to kill. The only cure that normally worked to rid the family member of bad gunky, was the shedding of blood. One of the family members that was not being attacked by the bad gunky would have to inflict a large, deep cut on his own body, to set the other family member free of the evil known as bad gunky.
This is a wonderful picture of what our Brother, Jesus, did for us, giving himself up freely to be crucified, to let his blood pour down the cross, so that we could be free from bad gunky, the power of sin, of badness, that caused our spiritual death. Bad Gunky, with a capital B and a capital G is no longer a threat to our eternal relationship with God, to our eternal life. However, bad gunky, small b, small g, still nips at our heels and barks in our ears on a daily basis. This bad gunky tempts us to do bad things. Tempts us to leave the Lord we love. We fall victim daily to bad gunky. Jesus tells us we are to love God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength. He tells us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. We fail at this everyday. In fact it is an impossible task. So what sets followers of Christ apart from the rest of humanity that fails everyday? It is the fact that as followers of Christ we have as our life goal to love God with all our being, and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. We know this is the surest way to a life full of joy with God and with each other. We begin the day in prayer, asking God’s Spirit to come along side us to help us love as He wants us to love. And, if we are to be honest, end the day in prayer, noticing the ways we have failed to love, and confess to God that we have not loved Him with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind and all our strength. That we have not loved our neighbor as our self. And we rest assured, knowing that God is faithful to forgive us our sins, our bad actions, our lack of love. We sleep peacefully, knowing that our merciful, compassionate, patient God has washed away the bad gunky of the day. We look forward to the morning when God’s mercies are new and we can experience afresh the joy of God.
**** **** **** ****
The great power of God appears in bringing a sinner from his low state, from the depths of sin and misery, to an exalted state of holiness and happiness. Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) from his sermon God Glorified in Man’s Dependence
**** **** **** ****
Next blog – God Didn’t Have To, But He Did
Recently I was thumbing through the Evangelical Theological Dictionary of Theology, and there it was! somewhere between Hallelujah and Homologoumena, I encountered Happiness. I was pleasantly surprised that a theology book considered happiness a worthy topic. It not only explored the concept of happiness, but included a “to-do” list. Things people need to do to be happy. I have taken that list, modified it somewhat, and added a few things of my own, to come up with a Top Ten list of things people need to do to be happy.
1. Develop a close relationship with God.
John 15:9 “Stay in my love.” John 15:10 “If you obey my teachings you will live in my love. John 15:11 “I have told you these things so My joy may be in you and your joy may be full.” John 15:15 “I no longer call you servants. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything I learned from my Father I have told you.” New Life Study Testament
The most important thing to do to enjoy God and be happy is to have a deep, trusting, and loving relationship with God.
2. Have a strong moral base.
Mark 12:28-34 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself.”
This is closely related to number one. One way we love God with all our being is to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. Loving doesn’t necessarily mean “liking”. Having a strong moral base essentially means that we do to others as we would like them to do to us. We don’t have to like other people in order to treat them right. Jesus uses the story of the Good Samaritan to illustrate this point (Luke 10:25-37).
3. Show mercy and compassion to the poor.
Proverbs 14:21 “He who despises his neighbor sins, but blessed is he who is kind to the needy.” Matthew 25:37-40 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” New International Version
When we reach out and help the poor, less fortunate, the “least of these”, God fills us with joy, because these are the kinds of works we were created to do to be happy people (Ephesians 2:10).
4. See your work as a gift from God.
Ecclesiastes 3:12-13 “I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil – this is the gift of God.” (also Eccl. 2:24,25; 3:22; 8:15)
The author of Ecclesiastes mentions often that enjoying and taking pleasure in your job is one of the most important things we can do to be happy. God gives all of us special gifts, talents, and abilities, that, when put to work, brings us joy. I believe God has given me the ability to garden and to teach. I have been doing these two things for over thirty years. While I never made a lot of money doing these things, they have brought a richness of joy into my life.
5. Think of others as better than yourself.
{love and happiness} (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Philippians 2:3 “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.” 1 Timothy 1:15 “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – of whom I am the worst.” NIV
Perhaps nothing can take away my happiness quicker than when I begin to think that I am better than someone else. That can be quite a temptation, especially when one lives in a Christian community in a foreign county as I do. Here at the home for needy children in Mexico, there are staff members and volunteers from different countries, cultures, backgrounds, environments, and spiritual walks. The Devil wants to bring divisiveness rather than unity, and he loves it when he can get us to think of ourselves better than those we are around everyday. When we feel superior to others, complain about others or look down on others, then the Devil has gained a foothold and we lose a precious bit of divine joy that God has for us. The great apostle Paul, writing to Timothy towards the end of his life, comparing himself to others, states that he is the worst of sinners. If we can identify with Paul, then we can experience God’s love and enjoy Him in a unique way.
6. Say “Thank you”.
Colossians 3:15 “Let the peace of Christ have power over your hearts. You were chosen as part of his body. Always be thankful.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16 “In everything give thanks. This is what God wants you to do because of Jesus Christ.” NLST
Say “Thank you” at least 50 times a day. Say it to God, to friends and family, to co-workers and to complete strangers. I f you have a thankful heart, you will have a happy heart. Just ask Madame Blueberry from VeggieTales, she’ll tell you.
7. Embrace silence and solitude.
“Solitude is the place of the great struggle and the great encounter – the struggle against the compulsions of the false self, and the encounter with the loving God who offers himself as the substance of the new self.” “Solitude … is the place where Christ remodels us in his own image and frees us from the victimizing compulsions of the world.” Henri Nouwen, The Way of the Heart, pg.s 16,22
“The day needs definite times of silence, silence under the Word and silence that comes out of the Word.” “Silence is nothing else but waiting for God’s Word and coming from God’s word with a blessing.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, pg. 79
Two writers that I have a lot of respect for when it comes to enjoying God, are Henri Nouwen and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. They both write about the importance of silence and solitude in the life of a happy, fulfilled Christian. They both suggest that daily times of silence and solitude, as well as extended get-a-ways where you can enjoy longer times of intimate silence and solitude with God and His Word are extremely important. It is especially in times of silence and solitude that we experience God, His love and joy.
8. Don’t talk so much.
James 3:6 “The tongue is a fire. a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.” James 3:8 “No man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.”
Hmm. Our tongues – fire, world of evil, corrupting, restless evil, full of deadly poison. Not happy things! Haven’t we all been burned and been poisoned by other peoples words? More tragically, we have burned and poisoned others with our careless words, gossiping, backbiting, sarcastic and venomous words. James says in the beginning of chapter three that if you control your tongue you will be perfect – perfectly happy? I think so. Fewer words, more happiness.
9. Delight in God’s Word.
Psalm 119:16 “I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word.” vs. 24 “Your statutes are my delight; they are my counselors.” vs.35 “Direct me in the path of your commands, for there I find delight.” vs. 47 “I delight in your commands because I love them.” vs. 77 “Let your compassion come to me that I may live, for your law is my delight.” vs. 92 “If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction.” vs. 111 “Your statutes are my heritage forever; they are the joy of my heart.” vs. 143 “Trouble and distress have come upon me, but your commands are my delight.” vs.174 “I long for your salvation, O Lord, and your law is my delight.” NIV
Start your day by reading God’s Word, studying and meditating on the scriptures, praying through some verses, memorizing others, and you will have a delightfully happy day.
10. Don’t live in the world and go to church, but live in the church and go into the world.
I don’t know who originally said that, but I love it. God not only saved us to have a personal relationship with Him, but, more importantly, saved us to be a vital part of His body, His kingdom, the community of faith, the Church. The Church is not a building that we go into once or twice a week to “worship God”. The Church is the body of Christ, a spiritual building that God has chosen as a growth instrument to help His followers grow in the fruit of the Spirit, of which one important fruit is joy. As a community, a fruit basket, we go into a hurting world and bring to it love, joy, peace, kindness, gentleness and goodness. Hence, we “live in the Church”, and go into the world.
Romans 12:4,5 ,6 “Just as ach of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us.”
So there it is, my top ten list of things to do to be happy. When these things are prominent in my life, I discover I am happier, experience more joy and enjoy God more. Most of these things don’t just happen overnight. It has taken me almost 50 years to cultivate them to the point that they are more or less natural to my life and faith walk, but I still have a ways to go.
I have about ten different types of fruit trees that I planted and care for here at the home for needy children in Oaxaca, Mexico. I imagine these ten things “to do” to be happy, as fruit trees in our lives. When they are young they bear no fruit, or immature fruit that is very small or not very edible, but they have the potential of producing much fruit. In order to finally bear good fruit they constantly need looking after. They need water, sun, good soil, fertilizer, insecticide, and pruning. After four or five years they almost all bear fruit, some more than others. One has died and a couple others are struggling mightily.
So it is in our “spiritual orchard”. Some of the things on our “to do” list come naturally, are comfortable for us to practice and live. Others we struggle with, and some we just feel like giving up on. With patience, diligence, and the goal of Happiness in view, we can have a beautiful and abundant orchard that yields a life of happiness and enable us to enjoy God forever.
* * * *
“To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. And number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that’s a full day. That’s a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you’re going to have something special.” Jim Valvano, College Basketball Coach who died of cancer eight weeks after saying this in a speech.
* * * *
Next post – The Lord’s Prayer, A Happy Prayer
Elaine
Elaine and her husband Ian are long time volunteers from Canada, here at the home for needy children in Oaxaca, Mexico. The other day I asked Elaine if she believed God loves her and wants her to be happy. She said, “Absolutely!” Then I asked her why she thought God allowed her to lose her hearing.
Happy Children Playing
Artwork by Elaine
She had had perfect hearing most of her life. About 28 years ago she gradually began to lose her hearing do to menieres disease, losing her hearing first in one hear, and then in the other until she was totally deaf. She thought about my question. She told me that she never thought a lot about why God allowed her to lose her hearing. She told me about difficulties she experienced as her hearing became impaired. With tears in her eyes she recounted a recurring nightmare she had regarding her hearing loss and her increasing need to depend on devices used to help the hearing impaired. A few more tears appeared as she told me about how much she loved music, and that she can’t go into a music store now.
Thinking more about my question, she mentioned that with her hearing loss she has learned to depend more on God. She rests more in God. Sometimes God takes things away from us, things that we enjoy, to help us focus on Him so that we can enjoy Him more.
God has made Elaine happy and uses her in a tremendous way at the mission, in the community and in three Oaxacan prisons. She is an artist and has painted many beautiful pictures and murals that inspire everyone here at the children’s home. She received a cochlear ear implant almost three years ago and partial hearing has returned to her life. That helps her to teach art classes at the mission school. She also has a sewing talent and ministry that reaches out to poor and incarcerated women, both physically, with quilts, and spiritually, with words that flow from her compassionate and joyous heart. She glorifies Him and enjoys Him in many different ways everyday.
Thinking about Elaine and her spiritual journey, I was reminded of two different scripture passages from the book of John. One is from chapter nine, the account of the man born blind. In those days, most Jews thought that physical maladies were a result of sin. The disciples asked Jesus, “Who sinned?”
Jesus told them that the blind mans affliction was not a result of sin. He was blind all his life so that one day the master healer, Jesus himself, would come along and restore his sight, and that God would be glorified through the miracle. Surely, the man who could now see, glorified God and enjoyed Him forever.
I also thought about John 15, where Jesus speaks of God the Father as a gardener of a vineyard. Jesus says the gardener cuts off every branch that bears no fruit. It is a basic principle of horticulture that to get more, you cut more. I do most of the gardening and landscape maintenance here at the mission. While we don’t have any grape vines to prune, I am constantly pruning roses and other flowers in order to get bigger and better flowers. Lately I have been pruning some overgrown citrus trees in order to get more, high quality fruit. In the same way, God prunes things from our lives, in order that we may produce more fruit – fruit of the Spirit. In the case of John 15, the spiritual fruit in question is JOY. In verse 11, Jesus says, “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” God loves us and wants us to be happy, and many times He prunes away one aspect of our live to ultimately produce more joy fruit in our lives.
Elaine misses her ability to hear perfectly. Daily her thoughts turn toward heaven and the time that her hearing will be restored. In the meantime, she thanks God for the gifts he has given her and the compassion she is able to show others who have suffered loss.
Art
When I first met Art, he was dying of a brain tumor. He was a middle aged man, gray hair, balding. He had once been an active Episcopal priest. I met him at a Lutheran church that I had just begun attending in Northern California. As I recall, he told me a joke. He loved to tell jokes. It was hard for me to understand him, because the brain tumor had caused his speech to be a bit slurred at times. He also had trouble with his sight, and needed a cane to get around. All of this didn’t stop him from enjoying God and telling jokes.
He told me about the time he told God a joke. Immediately afterward he said he was plagued with guilt. Who was he to be joking around with the Almighty, Holy God. He was in turmoil, he told me. He prayed. He cried. He begged forgiveness. He repented. After some time in this anguished state of mind, he heard a voice. The voice said, “Art, tell me another one.”
I think that because of this experience with a God who likes to laugh at jokes, Art began bringing much joy and mirth into peoples lives by telling jokes and funny stories. It didn’t matter so much that you couldn’t always understand him or get the punch line. What mattered was, here was a man who believed that God loved him and wanted him to be happy, despite his painful circumstances. As a result of the joy he experienced, he naturally wanted to spread the joy, and the best way he knew was telling jokes and hysterical stories. After I gave Art my email address, not a week went by that I didn’t receive at least one new joke or funny story. I always laughed and thanked God for Art. I miss him.
Anita
Anita was born into poverty. She was born at home because her parents couldn’t afford a hospital. She had a brother that was stillborn. One of her sisters died at six weeks, and another who died before her tenth birthday. Her youngest brother has Downs Syndrome.
Anita is a lady who suffered much as a young girl growing up poor in Mitla, Mexico. Her parents couldn’t afford a house, so they lived with an oppressive grandmother who treated them like servants or slaves. When that environment became too much for them, they decided to move to a small piece of land they owned on the edge of town. They constructed a “house” of bamboo sticks and a tin roof. Some days all they had to eat was tortillas with a bit of salt or pumpkin seeds for flavor.
Their only hope, so it seemed, lay in the syncretistic, Catholic religion that combined Christian orthodoxy with ancient, pagan, Zapoteco traditions. They prayed to saints, built a shrine to dead loved ones, and put out offerings they couldn’t afford , to celebrate the “Day of the Dead.” All of this brought nothing to their souls by way of peace, joy and happiness.
Fortunately, protestant missionaries lived nearby, and helped Anita and her family financially by giving them jobs. More importantly, they helped spiritually by giving them the gospel, the good news, that God loved them and wanted them to be happy. One by one, Anita and her family gave their lives to Jesus. One of the happiest days of Anita’s life was when she surrendered to God and embraced His love. The burdens and oppression she had suffered all her life, lifted away. She felt light as a balloon. She felt she was floating on air. And oh the joy that flooded her soul.
Anita, The Happy Cocinera
Anita is my wife. I met her my first day at the mission. She is an incredible cook and was working in the kitchen at the time. The first thing I noticed about her was her smile and sense of humor. My Spanish wasn’t so great then, and I didn’t understand half of what she said, but I did understand that she was glorifying God by enjoying Him!
We married two years later, and she continues to light up my life, our daughter’s lives, and all those at the mission, with her cheery attitude, generous giving of herself, and her contagious sense of humor.
I thank God everyday for this ray of heavenly sunshine that He has shined in my life. I also thank God for the inspiration of Elaine and Art, people who show me how to enjoy God in the midst of unpleasant life situations. People who know that God loves them and wants them to be happy.
* * * *
“One day our Sovereign Father and Friend will allow us to grasp His reasoning. Until then, we must trust Him. He is filled with love for you and me, and He uses the things we don’t understand to bring us closer to Him.” Letter from Bob Vander Plaats to his severely disabled son – from his book Light From Lucus.
* * * *
Next blog – Happiness, A To Do List
The first page from the 9th edition of the Westminster Shorter Catechism (1785). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Why am I here? I ask that question in two senses. Why am I here on planet Earth? And, Why am I here blogging? I mean, that’s all this world needs is another blogger – Right?
The Westminster Shorter Catechism asks the same question in a slightly different way. “What is the chief end of man?” The answer, “To glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.” John Piper, in his book Desiring God, puts it a little differently, “To glorify God by enjoying Him.” I like that.
I am here on planet Earth to glorify God by enjoying Him forever. Or, as the blog’s subtitle asserts, God loves us and wants us to be happy. As for creating another blog? Same reason. I enjoy writing, especially about God and His goodness, grace, mercy, love, kindness, power – you get the idea. It makes me happy. I hope to glorify God by my writing. I hope people reading this blog will come away from every post with a smile on their face, a deeper joy in their hearts; happier people. I enjoy God in a myriad of ways everyday – through His Word, His creation, His presence. Through my family by relation and my spiritual, community of faith, family. My desire, dream and hope is that because of this blog, as I share what I have learned so far in my faith journey with Jesus, up and down the path of life, that your journey will be a bit more enjoyable, joyous and happy. God is the King of the world, the Creator of the universe, and our Daddy. That incredible Being loves us and wants us to be happy!
I am a Dad to four daughters. Two older daughters, Tifani and Brianna, who are in their twenties and are from my first marriage. My youngest daughters are a result of my present marriage; Sally and Kelly, ages 3 and 2. What an age difference! My two sets of daughters are somewhat of a microcosm of my experience with God and His love that I have encountered on my spiritual journey. I love all of them and want them to be happy. This wasn’t always the case. My first two daughters were born while I was in Bible college and “ministry”. I loved them, but being “happy” wasn’t a top priority. Being obedient, good little Christian girls was more important to me. I wasn’t such a happy guy either. I was a stern, hard-nosed father, generally no fun to be around. As they grew, they occasionally referred to me as “pharisee”, and I imagine the word “hypocrite” was sometimes muttered under their breath.
In my mind and on my lips were verses from the Bible about God’s love, but they were not always on my hard heart. I didn’t think much about “enjoying God” or the idea that He wanted me to be happy. Thus a failed marriage and strained relationships with my daughters.
God Never Gives Up
Fortunately, God’s grace, mercy and stubborn love kept working on me. God was (and still is) the Hound of Heaven, who was constantly giving me good things I didn’t deserve, and constantly getting little messages into my head about how much He loved me and wanted me to be happy. One of my favorite verses in Psalms is from the 13th chapter, “I will sing unto the Lord, for He has dealt bountifully with me.” For a long time I was spiritually blind to God’s bounty in my life. All I saw was negatives, problems and selfish wants and “needs”. I didn’t always sing and give thanks for God’s goodness, because I didn’t always see it. I was blinded by spiritual pride and self-righteousness. Thank God, He never gives up on us, because He loves us and wants us to be happy and to enjoy Him.
The Apostle Paul prays for the Ephesians, that the eyes of their hears may be opened, and that they will know the depth and riches of God’s love. Gradually the “eyes of my heart” were opened to the reality of God’s love, goodness and grace. As I grew in that love, goodness and grace, I wanted to share that with others, with “the least of these”, as Jesus puts it. I had wanted to be a missionary since I was a young teenager, mainly because it seemed adventurous. God wisely and mercifully put the brakes on that notion until I grew in the understanding and knowledge of His love, and could go to serve the “least of these” with the right motivation – Love.
Oaxaca
So here I am, in Oaxaca, Mexico, cooperating with God in helping needy children. I am part of a wonderful ministry called Foundation For His Ministry that helps the economically needy, physically needy, and most importantly of all, the spiritually needy, both children and adults, throughout Mexico.
I have never been happier in my life. God has created us in such a way, that the more we share and reflect His love to a hurting world, the happier we will be. God has blessed me (made me happy) with Anita, my loving, vibrant, God-loving wife and two beautiful daughters.
I regret the bad attitudes and wrong perspective that I had on life and about God in my earlier years, and the pain I caused other people. I thank God everyday for the mercy he continually pours out on me, and the fact that He can make all things beautiful in His time.
I just turned 50 in December. Through the years, in spite of my thick skull, God has shown me and taught me about His love; His kind of happiness, and I have been truly enjoying Him like never before. With Sally and Kelly, I don’t care so much if they are perfect or obey all the time. I really care that they learn to love God, grow in His grace, are happy, and enjoy God. I pray that God helps me to be a Daddy that can be an example of that. I also pray that as people come ToEnjoyGod.com, that they will come to enjoy God in a deep, fresh way in every aspect of their lives.
* * * *
“If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it as 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 promises 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.” C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses
* * * *
Next blog – If God loves us and wants us to be happy, WHY…?
To Enjoy God 