Innocent Pleasures

This issue of pleasure is one that we have spent a significant amount of time in our triad talking about. One member of the group who had been reading ahead raised the issue a few weeks back. Personally, this is an issue that I have been wrestling with before God for several years.

The one question the answer to which has eluded me over the past several months is, what does it mean to find pleasure in God? If we are not to seek pleasure in ourselves, or in the creation, what are the pleasures of God? What do they look like? And, perhaps foremost in my mind, are they more pleasurable than the ones I tend to sinfully run to already?

I understand the theological answer to these questions. The pleasures that God offers us make all other fade to less than nothing in comparison; I know this because He says so in His word. However, at a functional level, I really do not believe this. I don’t have a very firm grasp on what this would look like in my everyday walk. There is a huge disconnect between my head and my heart in this regard- and I think just in my head as well.

In Psalm 16, David says of God, “You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (11). I came across this verse not too long ago, and have been wrestling with it on occasion on my own, and with others. I understand that David is speaking in the present tense; therefore, this fullness of joy, these eternal pleasures, can be and indeed are to be experienced now. But what are they?

I have heard C.S. Lewis quoted numerous times this year retelling his analogy of kids settling for making mud pies in a sandbox instead of taking the invitation to play at the beach. John Piper echoed these sentiments in his conference on sex and the supremacy of Christ: Piper stated that our souls are meant to be staggered with the greatness and the grandeur of the supremacy of Christ; however, we tend to chase after the banal pleasures the world has to offer. The antidote for this smallness of soul is to enlarge the souls by swimming in the Bible and drinking in the greatness of the attributes and the works of God. Powlison, in his article on innocent pleasures, puts it bluntly: the supreme pleasures in life are people- God and neighbor.

I was amazed at how simple and yet how profound the answer to my questions is. God Himself is the answer. He IS the supreme pleasure. David, I believe, was driving at this; the greatest pleasure is to be in God’s presence, and not just in His presence but in a position of favor at his right hand! THAT IS LIFE! What a wonder that we are afforded such mercy, such favor, such joy.

And yet…why choose something else? I think the abstractness and perhaps even the apparent eschatological nature of this reality is disconcerting to me. To be in God’s presence seems to me a promise with future fulfillment, not a present reality. But I think that is why God has placed us into a community. All sin, and perhaps escapism especially, turns us in on ourselves. By the nature of the sin, we block others out (including God). This I am masterful at doing. However, in doing so (as Powlison has taken pains to point out) we miss out on the very pleasures that we are seeking that are to be found in God through the ministry of and to others. Not only do we miss out on companionship in our loneliness, enjoyment in our disappointments, comfort in our grief, and encouragement in our frustrations, we also miss out of seeing what God is willing to do and does in our lives as well as in the lives of others; we miss out on the opportunity to be efficacious instruments in God’s hands in the work of his kingdom.

I have been interning at Harvest USA in Philadelphia since January, which is a counseling ministry that reaches out to those who struggle with sexual brokenness. When I began I arrogantly expected to be working with groups of men who were messed up and floundering in their sin as I had been through most of my life (seemingly alone in my struggle). What I hadn’t counted on was being amazed at the work of God going on in the live of so many Christian men. To see a group of 30 some men all struggling with sexual sins, and having great victory in Christ, was and is an amazing thing to behold. I consider it a great privilege, even an honor, to be able to be at this placement. So I have seen and continue to be privy to the work that God does in the lives of His people.

Furthermore, the blessings of God’s grace that He showered upon me through the Church have been very influential in the change that has occurred in my heart until this day. Even through my internship I have been challenged to become more honest about my sin, and have seen God in fresh ways. There have been times when I have admitted my sin to others, when I have admitted to frustrations, loneliness, and disappointments, and although this is difficult at first, they have been times of great blessing to me. At those times, I can and do rejoice in God, because I know He is with me; the fellowship I have experienced in these times, or having come through such times, is worth far more than the passing pleasures of sin.

So why do I still turn to earthly pleasures? I quickly forget. I am easily enticed. Mostly, I there is still a love in my heart for them that at times, often perhaps, wins out over my love for God and my love for others. I pray that God will use the challenges and the instruction of this article and of these discussions to continue the change in my heart that is still needed. I pray, too, that I will in times of temptation run not to the sins that so easily ensnare me, but to God and to the people He has placed in my life, and that I will relish the pleasures that He has treasured up for me in this life, all the while looking forward to the ultimate reality of life at His right hand forever.