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?
