Confessions of a Christian Hedonist

For those of you who know me you know that I listen to a lot of Matt Chandler... It may be a slight problem sometimes, but the man can speak some truth! Can I get an amen!?

I'm going to credit him for most of the ideas here. A lot of these thoughts are not my originals, but mostly just my thoughts on his thoughts on biblical truths. If that makes sense.

Anyhow listening to a plethora of Chandler's sermons, reading transcripts and doing some biblical research myself, I have seen a pattern. We are all hedonists.

What is hedonism?

It's essentially the pursuit of highest pleasure for ourselves.

We do it from day one. Babies at 2am, 4am, 6am, demand to be fed, changed, entertained, soothed, cuddled etc. and not much changes as we grow. We seek friendships, relationships, entertainment, food, drink, to be soothed and cuddled etc. for our own pleasure. We continue to seek bigger and better to fill our lives.

So then what is the Christian Hedonist?

It is the pursuit of the highest pleasure for ourselves -- the ultimate pleasure, and the only soul fulfilling, life giving, loving, joyful, satisfying pleasure that exists -- Jesus Christ, and the life that He calls us to.

I feel like a lot of churches have it backwards. They tell you that you can't have a good marriage, or be a good mother/father, or live a 'happy' life without God. That's far from the truth just look around you. I know many people myself who have amazing marriages, are great mothers and fathers, and are in general means happy that have no affiliation with Christ nor the church. On the contrary I have also seen Christians who were in very toxic marriages and relationships. We can have the pleasures of this life and still enjoy them without Christ. What God made as good is still good. Yes sin has warped and perverted it, but there is still good to be found from its design.

However these things will not fulfill our soul. They are meaningless. Without Christ they are fleeting pleasures. They feel good in the moment and maybe a little while after, but that moment fades and you're off to seek your next pleasure. As humans we come with and built-in space that is designed only for God to be able to fill. It is the space of complete and lasting satisfaction, fulfillment, and joy that only can be found in Christ.

I like to explain it as a puzzle piece. There is only one piece that will fit in the spot that you are trying to fill. You can force, and press, and wiggle other pieces to stay there, but it is going to look out of place, it will be a little uncomfortable, and ultimately it doesn't belong there. So you will remove that piece and try another, but unless you have the piece that is necessary to go there the picture will never feel/look complete.

I'm not going to lie to you. I have tried many puzzle pieces, and I'm not going to tell you that they weren't fun. I tried partying, alcohol, drugs, and sex; I have tried relationships, meaningful friendships, and being a 'good girl'. They are lots of fun, and very satisfying in the moment. However, that satisfaction is so fleeting. There one minute and gone the next. That is why it becomes a life style pursuing these things -- bigger, better, and in greater quantities -- because satisfaction was met, but not completely nor permanently.

This is the wonder and beauty of Jesus Christ. While we can still enjoy life without him we will never see the fullness of what life is to be without Him. We can enjoy that juicy steak, and that fresh glass of a robust merlot. But with God we can see the creative aspects that were put into place to make the steak what it is, and enjoy the warmth of the wine at its fullest. We can then see that these things are good gifts from an amazing creator that loves seeing those he loves enjoy life to the fullest. These things are holy and good things given by a holy and good God. We then are in a trance of gratefulness, and awe. And if you read my previous blog these things promote lasting joy! To enjoy things like marriage, parenthood, friendships, food, drink etc. to the fullest as they were created to be enjoyed we have to have Christ. Christ is the pinnacle of fulfillment and satisfaction, and enjoying this life is what overflows from that. Within Christ there is a new-found appreciation, joy, and overall goodness to life. Without Him the pleasures of this life are meaningless.

King Solomon (the wisest man this planet will ever see) is the biblical example of this in Ecclesiastes, and in 1 Kings.

This is Christian Hedonism.

Seeking Christ as the only permanent filling to the God sized hole in our life. A hole that nothing else will fill or satisfy.

Christ is the ultimate pleasure.

P.S. Here are links to some sermons that probably explain this concept a lot better than I do!

http://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/how-to-explain-christian-hedonism-over-lunch

http://www.thevillagechurch.net/resources/sermons/#series-sort_ecclesiastes : The Sixth Sense/Quenched

Cultivating Joy

Needless to say the past year of my life has brought so many ups and downs that I'm beginning to feel nauseous. This roller coaster is exhausting.

I always feel as if I have been residing in the downs more often than the ups. When I feel as if my season of walking through the valley is over, and I can see the light, I am met with another another valley.

I'm beginning to realize that this is just what life looks like. If I am to fear these valleys or let the anxiety, pain, and frustration of having to walk through them overtake me, then I have no hope for this life to be one full of beauty. What I am also beginning to see is that the more valleys I face, the easier they are to walk through. Once you have seen God walk you through one, you still know the next one is going to be equally if not more difficult, but you know that you're going to be okay.

Marty Caldwell (Global Director of Young Life) recently came to my current sweet home state of Arizona, and spoke at a leadership meeting that I attended. His words were utterly inspiring to me in my current state of inner turmoil. He spoke on cultivating gratefulness.

He painted a picture of a man he met overseas. This man barely had anything. Marty spoke of stepping into his small one room hut for a home, not much bigger than a bedroom on a home we would have here in the states. There was a window, a small table, and a lightbulb hanging by a string from the ceiling to light up the small space. Yet this man bubbled over with radiant joy. As he walked Marty through his small hut he envisioned all of the great things God was going to do in this hut. "And in this corner, I will stand and preach the gospel to the men! In this corner on this table will be water for the men to drink!" He was most literally so excited about the small amount that he had that he overflowed with joy. He was grateful for all that he had -- even though all he had were the shoes on his feet, and a small hut with a dirt floor.

Marty said with tears in his eyes,

"When we cultivate gratitude for all that God has given us, even though it may just be the breath in our lungs, we will live lives radiant of hope and joy. When you are grateful there is no choice but to be joyful."

What I have learned in this life is that entitlement is what breeds ungratefulness. When we believe we deserve something we do not have then we live lives that are angry, bitter, resentful, and lacking of joy. The harsh reality is that we don't deserve anything, and we owe everything. It is only by the grace of God that we have the very breath in our lungs. So we have everything to be grateful for.

Christian joy is a very foreign thing to our world, because it is not of this world. Joy is a fruit of the spirit, and it is a heavenly fruit. It is not normal to have hope in the wreckages of life. It is not normal when you have lost all things you love and care about, to have joy. It is not normal to have nothing, but be grateful for everything.

But that's the beauty of it all. A life with Christ is counterintuitive to what is 'normal'.

How is it then that we cultivate joy?

Something I heard from a very wise woman named Amy Sherman, was this: in order to be grateful, we have to rename our possessions as not 'ours' but as 'God's'. When we realize all that we possess, are actually God's possessions they stop ruling our lives as our gods, and God has the opportunity to be our God. When we finally put on these lenses to see that what we have is not truly by the work of our hands, but given by the grace of a good God, gratefulness begins to grow. When we put on an eternal lens that seeks first the Kingdom, and shy away from the blinders that trap us in our temporary situations, we are able to live lives of freedom and joy.

This is not to say that we will not experience a great deal of pain and suffering in our lifetime, or that our pain and suffering should be minimized. That is far from the truth, and pain will always demand to be felt. The realities of the broken world that we live in means that we will actually experience great deals of disappointment, pain, suffering, and brokenness throughout our lives. That is where I hope that all of you that are reading, have a place and a community where people will walk you through these seasons. We must also not forget that no matter how far God may feel that He is insanely near, and we are never alone in our trials and tribulations.

We live in a time where Jesus has come and saved us from our sin, sealing us for eternal life. He is a redeemer, and is more than capable of restoring our lives. However, we also live in a time where we eagerly await the complete restoration and perfection that is to come when Christ returns again. Therefore we live in a weird in-between of life where we feel the friction of wanting what is perfect, but it has not yet come.

We can root our hope here. That this is not forever. We still feel the pains and aches of brokenness, but this is not how the story ends. Our hope is not in the success and perfection of our current lives, but the life that is to come. That the earth again will be a place of harmony, unity, and peace -- just as God intended it to be when he created it, good.

When we root our hope in a beautiful eternity, and we grow the seeds of gratefulness to a God that is madly in love with us -- we begin the feel the restless bubbling of joy from the core of our being. It is a joy that never wavers, a joy that cannot be squelched by pain, a joy that is supernatural and unlike this world has seen. We cannot help but radiate joy when we find fulfillment in the God whose very breath he breathed into our lungs.