Pleasure

This weekend was very pleasurable. Not pleasurable in the "sin is pleasurable for a season" sense, but pleasurable in the "at His hand are pleasures forevermore" sense. The pleasure of the weekend brought to mind the following quote from Chariots of Fire:

I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure. (Eric Liddel)

This weekend made me mindful of many words that could replace 'run' in the above quote:

When I toboggan down the big farm hill with snow flying in front of me and little girls screaming behind me, I feel His pleasure.

When I laugh with Hannah as we try on jeans in the tiny room of a thrift shop, I feel His pleasure.

When I listen to our friend, Kaspar, recently adopted from Poland, speak in an excited Polish accent and smile incessantly, I feel His pleasure.

When I play a Typing Teacher game with Caleb on the computer and we both get so nervous that sharks will eat the little diver that we are trying to keep alive by typing an insane number of words per minute, I feel His pleasure.

When I look out the window during our family's Meeting for Worship and see a purple finch finding seed in the bird feeder amid the constant snow fall, I feel His pleasure.

When I come from the cold into the hot sauna of the room housing our wood furnace, I feel His pleasure.

When the family gathers in the living room to read Lord of the Flies before the children go to bed, I feel His pleasure.

When I practice the piano and begin to believe I am actually beginning to make music, I feel His pleasure.

When I laugh and laugh with my friend Emily just because we are happy to be together, I feel His pleasure.

And when I play the guitar and nine kids join me in singing, I feel his pleasure.

C.S. Lewis insightfully said in The Screwtape Letters that God desires for us to richly share in His pleasure. Satan, however, wants us to always believe that we are seeking our pleasure but denies the reality that we are never really attaining it because we do not seek the pleasure in the right time and way.