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I recently read an article written by an author who was reflecting on the purchase of a new home.  The author wrote:

“If you are going to invest in something, invest in something in which you find daily delight.”

Being one who appreciates words, I found myself taken with the phrase itself.  The “if/then” structure, the alliteration, they drew me into what the author was suggesting, so much so that I wrote it down in the journal I carry with me.  (One never knows where a newsletter idea will come from!)

I began to think of this phrase from the standpoint of our faith.  Do we find daily delight in our faith journeys?  Does our relationship with God bring us joy?  Do we delight in our discipleship (oh, sweet alliteration!)?  Are our prayers filled with promise?

If we turn this around, we ask ourselves if God, who created us and knows each hair on our heads, finds daily delight in us.  Oh, this is another question altogether!  And, of course, I think the answer is “probably not”.  And here’s why:  I believe that God created us precisely because God wanted us to experience daily delight.  God wanted us to know the rich fullness of Creation.  God wanted us to be filled to overflowing with love for ourselves and one another.  God wanted us to live in full faith freedom (there I go again!).

Somehow, though, we have managed to turn God’s desire for our daily delight into a restrictive, oppressive set of rules and dictums that shout NO to God’s YES.  Throughout history, the Church has participated in the support of slavery, the oppression of women, the oppression of minorities and the oppression of anyone else thought to be “different”, thought to be “other”.  We have stopped seeking the daily delight of discipleship, of walking where Jesus walked, of doing the things Jesus did….loving all people, sharing a meal with friends, praying, setting time apart for solitude with God.  Instead we only love those who are “like us”, we are too busy to sit down to the table at home, we choose other pursuits rather than coming to the Table of the Lord, and then we say we have no time anymore….no time for God, or our community of faith.

We have wandered far from daily delight.

My invitation to us all is to seek once again to daily delight in our  discipleship.  To look around us and see the beauty of Creation, given to us to tend, nurture, and enjoy.  That we value and affirm loving relationships that respect the dignity of all people.  That we make gathering for worship with our community of faith a priority in our lives. That we carve out time for prayer, solitude, and time with the One whose desire is that our spirits would find such delight in each new day.

With delight,

Pastor Julie+