We do not engage God in our lives because we over respect God. We borrow God’s name and use it for our purposes only even though we seem to know that God is inevitable every moment. We need God every moment but there are moments when we want God to remain aloof. That appears to be our dilemma. We need enjoy God rather than fear Him. God is someone to be loved and enjoyed, not feared.God did not call us to servitude but to make us God’s children.
Every year the animist prayed to the godling of the land as they began the fresh plot of land to be cultivated that year, “We have chosen this spot to be cultivated this year. Please turn and sleep facing the other side. Do not disturb us till we complete the year by harvest. We will offer you whatever is due to you.”
The Christian God does not want to remain aloof from humans. God is in constant search for humans even when humans had a fall and separated themselves from God. Jesus considers his followers, the church as intimately related to God as God’s bride. The front page of a concise booklet of Christian teaching (The Shorter Catechism of the Church of Christ in England) displays a line which no reader can overlook, thus “The chief end of man (sic) is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.” That is to mean the purpose of human existence is to glorify God (e.g., 1 Cor.10:31) but also to enjoy Him (Ps.73:25 & 26) forever.
If the chief end of humans is stated in a couplet why should we care for the first phrase “To glorify God” and neglect the second phrase “To enjoy him forever?” To enjoy G od is as serious mandate from God as also to glorify God. Many Christians think some expressions like “Enjoy” or “Pleasure” or even “Fun” are expressions alien to divine. Even as the joy of the Lord is our strength our complete joy is God’s pleasure. Christianity is often called a religion of joy. When the joy is put in verb form as ‘Enjoy’ that is human experience of God. Only God can give us the real joy or to enjoy anything. Our loving God has called us not to be slaves but to make us children of God. God does not want to see us fasting or starving to die. God wants us to eat to remain strong and live and work for God. Many Christians think God called us to servitude, life negating and world negating and a life devoid of fun, pleasure and enjoyment. The truth is, God called us to be His inheritance and enjoy life in God’s abundance of life. The enjoyment here refers to the delight of being with God, not enjoyment that trespasses God’s law.
For many people the state of enjoyment refers to the fun of eating and drinking. God does not want us to indulge in gluttony and drunkenness but wants us to enjoy the fruit of our labor which is also divine provision. Some Christians think God will be pleased by our piety showed in fasting, frugality and austerity. Jesus told us to the effect we need not fast so long we are with him (The Bridegroom) or when he is with us. There is no moment when Jesus cannot be with us. To please him or to worship him we don’t need to strip ourselves of life’s comfort and pleasure resulted from our godly living. This does not mean we take our right to relate with God in the sense of ‘prosperity gospel’. Such principle of relating with God would be, as Wayne E. Oates called, “Extractive relationship” rather than love (Agape) relationship. That would mean we relate to Jesus only to obtain blessings from him.
When we say we should not only glorify God but also enjoy God it includes enjoying all the conditions and situations of godliness, including enjoying His cross. The cross bearing is now made easier for us as Jesus has gone through the most painful experience involved in it. We are left with only one condition ’To believe in that fact of Jesus death for us. The pain of cross bearing will be the same but since Jesus has gone through it we can also pass through it keeping in mind Jesus has pioneered the way of the cross. That itself will be an enjoyable experience rather than compelled sacrifice. For many Christians following Jesus is observing certain laws, relinquishing much of life’s pleasures and remaining chained by austerity, prohibitions and otherworldly mindset. When we put on the law of Love even the pain of the cross will be an experience of enjoyment because it is the believer’s sharing with the pain of God.
If our land is a land of enjoying God rather than fearing and isolating God we would have experienced Christ-ruled land and people. We have enough materials and rituals to keep God away from our daily life. Worse of them are rituals of frequent fasting, revival programs, specified places for prayers, designated persons to pray for others and raised tone of prayers to the extent the sound reaches heaven before the content of prayer reaches, and costly church buildings to entertain the divine. We hardly realize that we as church officials raise huge amount of money from the poor believers to build monuments bearing our names. Do the poor and needy of the church really enjoy God or consider God as burden?
The best experience of the believer’s community is when the poorest and the neglected people experience God as their equal and their real friend. The annunciation at the birth of Christ was that the birth of Christ was news of great joy. When this news of great joy was experienced by believers it became a song of Joy to the world. There is no reason why the presence of Christ in a person’s life should not make that life a life of enjoyment, not a burden. God wants us to glorify God by our life and also to enjoy divine companionship.
Let us not over respect God to the extent leaving God outside our daily lives. Let us engage God in our daily lives, enjoy God’s relationship with us each moment. Such act of reclaiming our Ground of Being alone will change our land to look more like Christ centered land filled by God-fearing people. Our land will then become a land where God is loved and enjoyed rather than feared and appeased off.
~ Ezamo Murry
