That Good Part

This journey to finding enjoyment really began a while back, when I read this blog post on Emily P. Freemans blog.  Emily P. Freeman wrote what has proved to be one of the most painful yet enjoyable reads of my year thus far, Grace for the Good Girl.  Painful in it's troweling of my heart and psyche,  enjoyable to find out what was stunting my growth and joy.  Don't let that scare you, go read her book.  I started following her blog soon after that, and read this post on what is called The Morning Pages.  In case you are too lazy to hit the link and read the post yourself (which is a bummer because it's much better than mine),  morning pages are sitting down first thing and writing three pages of longhand, any-thing-that-comes-to-mind thoughts, sort of a clearing of the cobwebs.  Don't freak out about the first thing in the morning thing, Jesus won't be mad if you try something new and the morning pages people won't come after you if you do it...

The secret to finding enjoyment is simple-are you awake? Look, there it is! Finding enjoyment is a little like playing Hide and Seek. Well, it’s really like playing Hide and Seek with a four year old. You know, they hide, but usually some body part is sticking out from behind a chair or they giggle, so it’s not hard to find them.  It’s easy to win when what you are looking for is right in front of you. There are more than 15 verses in Ecclesiastes that speak of enjoyment, pleasures and happiness. None of those verses refer to those things in the negative sense, as if they are futile pursuits; in fact most of them are instruction.  We’re told that enjoying food and drink and satisfaction in work are pleasures from the very hand of God.  Twice we’re told that to eat, drink and enjoying the fruits of our labor are gifts from God. Are you experiencing the gifts of enjoyment that God has given you? Hmm.. Having trouble identifying what those gifts might be i...

Pastor Chuck Smith has entered into the joy of his Lord.  I never met him, never sat directly under his teaching but as part of a Calvary Chapel and the wife of a Calvary Chapel pastor, there is an undeniable influence in my relationship with God that has been imparted by Chuck and Kay Smith. My favorite Chuckism is a story he related in one of his books, I don't remember which one. In it he spoke of shaking his fist at someone on the freeway and remembering that he had a personalized license plate that said something about Calvary.  Having the temper of a cobra I was encouraged that even Pastor Chuck shared in my freeway frustration.  It is easy to think of men like him as someone who never struggles, never gets in the flesh, never fails.  But they do. He did, at least once on the freeway. Joy and enjoyment are the things that most emanated from the Chuck Smith I experienced.  He spoke briefly this past year at a book conference I attended and his joy in th...

It was just about a week ago that I discovered the 31 Day challenge on The Nester .   The objective is to post on the same topic every day in the month of October.   Actually, I don’t remember if they call it a challenge, but the thought of writing something every day for 31 days on a single topic certainly sounded like a challenge to me.   I was inspired. It didn't take long for me to decide what I wanted to learn and write about, it was fun to think about fun and enjoyment.  I started making notes and drafting posts, and I was surprised at where my head went with the topic.  I was surprised at how the ideas flowed. I was surprised at how easy it was.  Part of the challenge is to link to The Nester blog so that your posts show up there under a category you choose. You do this via a button with a grab box and a permalink.  Right after that, you perform brain surgery. Well, according to the tips on the blog and other tutorials, brain...

Every now and then, for the last several years, I will have a moment of deep quietness.  It is in those times that I remember how much I like to write.  It's similar to the feeling I get when I remember how much I like a food I haven't eaten for a while, or a favorite book I haven't read for years.  Familiar pleasure.  And it makes me yearn. Cultivating pleasure doesn't come easily to me. It's not that I don't enjoy things, it's more that because I have such a warped sense of responsibility,  I default to the priority of making the world right before it occurs to me that I should do something for the sheer joy of doing.  Now, I am realistic enough to know I can't make the world right, and I have plenty of biblical knowledge to explain who can.  But I have lived a long time with the need to do one more thing before I indulge in the things that except for pleasure, don't really accomplish much.  The greatest One who ever mused, dreamed and c...