For Our Enjoyment

“Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.”

This is the part of today’s text that I was planning to write about, but each time I read the whole passage, I kept being drawn to a different portion. Here’s the section I kept reading:
17 Teach those who are rich in this world not to be proud and not to trust in their money, which is so unreliable. Their trust should be in God, who richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment. 18 Tell them to use their money to do good. They should be rich in good works and generous to those in need, always being ready to share with others. 19 By doing this they will be storing up their treasure as a good foundation for the future so that they may experience true life.

Okay, before I continue, which part jumps out the most at you? Where is your hook today? Which phrase or word or concept is God laying out at the door of your heart to contemplate?

I was thinking about the command to be good and rich in good deeds when I couldn’t get away from the phrase in verse 17: Their trust should be in God, who richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment.

Now, perhaps my Puritanical roots have had more of an influence on my psyche than I realized, or I’ve just lived too long in the land of spiritual poverty, but when I read that God gives all we need for our enjoyment, I was stopped in my tracks. I know the verses that remind us that Jesus came that we might have not just life, but abundant life and that David prayed for the restoration of the joy of his salvation. When I read that the Shepherd of the 23rd Psalm gave me everything that I need I assumed that was about the necessities of life, not including enjoyment.
So the question that began knocking about in my mind was this: how have I limited what God has wanted to give to me?

I was just letting my mind wander through my memories and I landed on an incident that happened while I was pastoring my first church. Nelson had a motorcycle then and we went on a ride with another couple from the church. It was the longest ride I had ever been on—and as it turned the longest I would ever go on. We had been out for several hours and were heading home when we rounded a corner that had railroad tracks and lots of loose gravel. Nelson quickly instructed me to hold on. I misunderstood and instead of holding on to him, held onto the bike. Next thing I knew the bike was sliding down the road and so were we.

Fortunately, nothing was broken except a few things on the bike. We were a bit scraped up from our slide. I learned the pain of road rash. As we were in the emergency room, we realized that we needed to contact the church and let them know that we wouldn’t make it back for Sunday evening service. The seniors of our congregation were quick to let me know that our accident was the result of our frivolous spending of time on the Lord’s Day. Somehow I should have known better. It was a mistake that was labeled as immature, both in chronological wisdom and spiritual maturity. Their thinking was: God does not have fun on Sunday afternoons.

Maybe something else was broken that day. My ability to believe that God blesses us with times of enjoyment was somehow damaged. There have been special moments, but somehow I failed to attribute them to God. Most recently (and hugely) was a weekend that Nelson planned last Fall. We traveled to Kansas City (where I met a new dear friend) and enjoyed wonderful food, shopping, the symphony, and a Chiefs game. It was an oasis in a dessert time in my heart. How could I have not known it was a gift from God? Which also reinforces to me what a gift Nelson is to my life.

In just a little bit Nelson and I are taking Asher to a reservoir about an hour away. I played there as a child and then later after Nelson and I got married. Before I lost my job this summer I would stop there occasionally and eat my lunch when I was working in that town. I love that place and today I think God has prompted me to go and play there. It’s an enjoyment, a huge blessing of grace, that God is giving us today. Wish you could come along and play, too.