Rhap365: Day 13: Filled

#Rhapsody365 Day 13: Filled

Image 9/12/2015 Harrison, ARkansas Balloon Festival.

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The other day I mentioned that before I started Rhapsody365, I had considered making it EnjoyingGod365. Now it looks like I may be making it a strong inner theme.

What does it mean to enjoy God?

The phrase itself is not my own. It has a rich tradition in Christian thought, and is pulled most directly from this maxim, found in the Westminster Greater Catechism. (a document with which I have some profound differences, but not here.) It reads.

What is the Chief end of Man?

The Chief end of Man is to know God, and enjoy him forever.

The fact that that idea was penned by Christ followers of the Puritan hue may surprise some. (Some have characterized the Puritans as pleasure-hating sexually repressed prudes…but a survey of several of their spokesmen, Puritan poet Anne Bradstreet shows that we have mightily mischaracterized the Puritans.)

So What does it mean to Enjoy God?

It means we find our deepest pleasure while dwelling in his presence and savoring his gifts, including the life he has given us.

I see the enjoyment of God realized in these three, possibly four major ways.

1) We enjoy God because of who He is. (We are enamored of His being.)

2) We enjoy God because He has made the world and everything in it. 

3) We enjoy God because of the love he has lavished on us…(We enjoy him for what he does for us in our inner person.

and finally (to whom it will apply)

4) We enjoy God because He dwells in us, and fills us with genuine joy.

(There is a caveat to what I am saying -- for discussion later on, namely… that Enjoyment of God is prefaced by knowing that God is, and by being in communion him, apart from which our enjoyment of his being is greatly limited.)

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One of the reason I questioned whether I should do an “Enjoying God 365, is that I wondered if I could really flesh out all of these ideas, driven by photography. At least three of these chategories are so outside the world of the visible, that I thought I might give a lopsided presentation of “Enjoying God.” By focusing on the world (and the joys to be found in it) we give only a partial sense of what it means to enjoy God.

So, while my images and art will necessarily give greater weight to point 2, I hope to address all the forms of enjoying God over these next months.

2-B continued.