Category: Delight

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Delightful Presence

Dear Sister,
All too often I am driven, focused, and fulfilled by completing my to-do list. The goals of the day tend to consume my thoughts, time and energy. I find a great amount of delight in recounting all the accomplishments of the day—much as one might finger precious jewels. Until recently, I felt such an approach to life was, ahem, a rather superior one.

Suddenly it dawned on me though cleaning, laundry, cooking, creating, grading, managing the finances, etc. are all important, they will not last—in fact, they are often undone or need to be done again in a matter of moments. 1 Cor. 13:8 came to mind: “Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.” Finish laundry or stop to love on my kids? Rush home with the groceries or spend a moment talking with the bagger? Jump into the morning to get some early work done or spend time with God before the craziness begins? Frankly, I feel the Holy Spirit telling me love should always win—relationships are the trump cards. It is not that God does not want me to work or to take delight in my work, on the contrary—He just wants me to do so in the right context, with the right priorities.

Yes, the work is crucial, but as a means to an end—it is the background for delighting in God’s presence and relating with others. The world, things, our creations are simply the playing field for our real work: relationships. The Greatest Commandments are to love God and to love others (Matthew 22:36-39). Those are the ultimate achievements in our world—nothing else matters in comparison.

I have discovered that I was glorying in the exquisite way I could manicure the field where the game was to be played. Oh, it was beautiful! I had disciplined myself to produce an excellent piece of work. Unfortunately, the actual game is of infinitely greater value than the field upon which it is played. With tears of regret, I am beginning to restructure my priorities to reflect my Lord’s. The necessary surgery is a painful one, for pride is involved; but He is gentle surgeon, and I know though the recovery may be long and difficult, He will not stop healing me until I too can play the game with great skill. It is a wonderful thing to find delight in His presence!
Running with you,
Rebecca

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Jesus Is Our Delight

My dear sisters,

Annabelle, my three-year-old daughter, loves the Muppets. She was watching a part of the “Muppets take Manhattan” this morning and my heart lightened as my own childhood memories rushed colorfully through my mind. The wonder of creativity, the awe of how each Muppet changed costumes, how they rode bikes and got wet without getting wet, and the intertwining humor with memorable stars. Add my brothers watching beside me each night at 7, and I felt the feeling of delight well up.

Why do certain things give us delight? In fact, what is delight and why do I get it with the Muppets, for heaven’s sake?!

Scripture says that all good things come from above, so I decided to look up “delight” in a concordance rather than a dictionary. I found that we are to delight in the Word, in the law of the Word, in righteousness, in the Saints…we are to delight to draw near to God, delight in God, delight in truth, and in righteous works. The list is actually pretty long, but do you see the same theme that I am seeing? We are to delight, or be satisfied, in all that God is for us in Jesus. Perhaps the Jesus part is not as clear, so lets look a bit closer.

We delight in the law because that is the Word of the Lord. If we delight in what He says and commands, then we are delighting in God because that is how He expresses Himself. When we delight in righteousness, or right things, we are delighted in the Lord because all that He does is right and good! When we delight in the Saints, we are delighting in the Lord because what draws us to saints is their Christ-likeness. Jesus is the Word, He fulfilled the law perfectly, and He is the God-Man that shows us the perfect character of God. So when we delight and are satisfied in all that He is for us, it brings joy.

So what about the Muppets? Well, God is a creative God. He made amazing, exotic, and funny looking creatures in land, air, and sea. He gave us food that tastes bitter, sweet, sour, and salty. He gave people talents to paint the Mona Lisa, write symphonies, sing to melt our hearts, write words that bring us to places we’ve never been, and imagination to come up with animated, talking stuffed animals! I delight in the Muppets because it is a picture of God’s creativity and imagination! I delight in my brothers’ company because God made us for fellowship and company.

Sweet sister, delight in the Lord today. He, in His kindness, gives common grace to all mankind to see pictures of Himself each day. We delight in his character, and the many forms we see it displayed on this earth and in His Word.

Your Sister in Christ,

Colleen