Of living like you enjoy life and God…

By Dave on 23 October 2007 - 0 reactions .

It’s about time I update this blog. Anyway, no promises…

I’ve just re-read a small part of Piper’s “Desiring God“… It deals with this thing called “Christian Hedonism” and is awesome. Go read it.

Anyway, (part of) John Piper’s claim with Christian Hedonism is that (in my words) “God is most glorified through us when we are most satisfied in Him“. Piper says that God’s Glory (’Praise’) follows not our dutiful obedience, but our satisfaction with Him. Ultimately we praise most that which we enjoy most. All other praise (based on duty, guilt, etc.) is false: hypocrisy…

So we can only really, authentically praise and glorify God (His ultimate purpose), if we really, authentically enjoy Him. Pretty cool stuff!

The other thing that came to mind when I re-read this, was something I read in CS Lewis’ ‘Mere Christianity‘ (I think). Another awesome book!

Lewis deals with the same issues when he explains some principles in Christian Living (old stuff ). He basically says that it is not ‘the pursuit of happiness’ that’s wrong. But that our happiness is ’skewed’. We aim too low! He also mentions that Christians often struggle with their love of God. “I do not feel that love, for myself, my neighbour or God”, people say. Lewis replies with an important principle (my words again): “We need to act as if we felt that love in order to experience it”. If you want to become a more loving person, but find that you lack love, act as if you had that love and you’ll find that you will experience it… (the same goes the otherway around: approach people with hate and you will find that you hate them more).

Maybe old stuff, but it keeps my mind occupied when I try to figure out how to live life as a disciple of Jesus… When we think about our lives and plans for the future (in our so often dualistic ways), how often do we take into account that God wants us to be happy (in Him)? How often do we stop planning and thinking and start acting out the life we wish we had?
I find that too often I think about life and I am not satisfied with mine. I ponder how things might change but do not actually fully enjoy life right now. I feel I need to start living like I enjoy it… Hmmm.

Posted in General, Life, Theology.