Articles

In today’s contemporary, western culture, we crave gratification. We long for fulfillment. Yet like an elusive carrot, we can’t ever seem to garner enough joy to fill up our tanks. This constant search for bliss, even if fleetingly found, has become incessant and often toxic among Americans. Yet, hedonism has become part of the American identity. Whether it’s the gym, sports, shopping, or chocolate, whether alcohol, drugs, sex, or smoking, we find it hard to resist whatever can provide us with that quick “fix” of pleasure. We are a people addicted to diversion.

When we are feeling down or facing life’s challenges, it is really easy for us to run to alcohol, feel good drugs, even sexual gratification, because when that quick burst of contentment and euphoria comes over us, we can whisk away our problems for a little while. Yet the reprieve won’t last for long. When our temporary pleasure fades away, our problems will return, oftentimes compounded.

Upon thinking about this issue prevalent in our lives today, it occurs to me that perhaps we are quick to seek out things that give us this momentary sense of pleasure because we are not finding pleasure in God. Now, I am not saying that temptations will never happen, but those temptations are harder to “fight” when we are not finding pleasure in God, when our lives are not rooted in God’s life-giving joy.

What do I mean “finding pleasure in God”? I mean finding fulfillment in the presence and word of God. I mean enjoying spending time with the Creator when we do daily devotions, Bible Study, worship, prayer, or participating in the sacraments. I mean feeling joy when we participate in these kinds of means of grace that bring us closer to our eternal Sustainer. We call these “spiritual disciplines.”

Whatever your spiritual preference, the practice of spiritual disciplines for experiencing God’s grace helps us to remember that our completeness and sense of joy come from God and God alone. Nothing can beat the feeling of God-inspired joy! It’s simply over-the-top delight. Once you experience delight in God, anything else will feel subpar, and you know it will not last. God alone provides the sustaining joy that keeps us moving and going in this journey we call life.

We all have moments in our lives we take our focus off of God, and the joy and completeness God brings, but God is always there in the person and presence of Jesus Christ to bring us back in, forgive us, make us new, and bring about joyful transformation in our hearts and lives.

How can we cultivate this kind of God-infused joy?  Support groups can become a phenomenal way to learn spiritual disciplines together. Group members can help individuals realize that life cannot be lived alone. Through the grace of God, we have been given each other to help each other along the way, to support and guide each other to become the joyful people in God that we were made to be.

Simply quitting the things that lead us away from God sounds like an easy answer. But it seldom solves the issue. Hedonism is an addiction that keeps us entrenched. We harbor something deep inside of us that needs to be healed, needs to be made whole, a deep longing for completeness that only God can fill. This longing for completeness and wholeness can only be found in the person of Jesus Christ. Once we realize and acknowledge our need for Jesus, we will discover that true pleasure in life is only found in God.

How do we start?  We start by realizing that the root of whatever issue we’re dealing with is deeper than just our past actions and mental state. The root issue comes from a “hole,” a gap that resides in us until God, through God’s grace, completely removes it and replaces that gap with God’s complete and holy presence. This is called repentance. It is a turning of our mind (thinking) and way of life around, until we face the One we truly long for.

I believe that when we find true enjoyment, true pleasure, in God through Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit will come in and show us how God is working in us and through us to make us holy, whole, and fully complete. Then, and only then, will we be able to break free from the sin that binds us down and leads us away from God. Only then will we feel the uninhibited, lasting joy that only God can give.

May you know God’s grace in your life, and may you in your hunger for pleasure, pursue God, even as God remains always in pursuit of you.