The Pleasure Principle

 

We saw in a previous post that pursuing pleasure at any cost can lead us into destruction, both physically and spiritually.  Pleasure is a dangerous thing.  But it is also a glorious thing.  God has placed the desire for pleasure in our hearts and He wants us to find it.  He is a good Father and delights when we are living a flourishing, soul-satisfying life.  He has tuned our hearts to seek pleasure.

The American Founding Fathers tapped into this truth when they crafted the Declaration of Independence, they wrote, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

The Founders recognized that seeking fulfillment and satisfaction is a perfectly natural and even a good thing.  Every person who has ever lived has sought after happiness, even those who live lifestyles of extreme self-denial are doing so because they believe in the end, they will find greater happiness.

The problem is that we become fixated on the experience of pleasure itself.  We enjoy the delicious meal, and we focus on the food and drink in front of us, but we neglect to let it draw our attention heavenward to consider the bread of life, and the living waters.  We enjoy some "me time" and have a relaxing evening at home, focusing on our own desire for rest and forget the One who said, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and our heavy laden, and will give you rest."(Matthew 11:28)

All the wonderful, beautiful things in this world were meant to draw our attention away from ourselves and to God.  We are not meant to enjoy pleasures as ends in and of themselves, but as gifts from God.  Many of us have pursued pleasure to our own destruction, but it may be that we have not followed our desire for pleasure far enough.

When I was a child, I loved to play video games, but we did not have a video game console in our home.  So, it was not unusual for me to dash off into the neighborhood and find other kids that had consoles and play with them.  At the time we lived in a mobile home, but my parents wanted to move into proper house.  I was mostly oblivious to this, and just wanted to run around and play video games.  My parents had scheduled for all of us to visit a home they were looking at purchasing, and at the appointed time I was off at some neighbor boy's house playing video games.  My parents had to track me down and drag me out.  We were late for the appointment, and I was scolded soundly.  The house was large, much larger than the trailer we were currently in, I would have a room three times as large as my current one.  Best of all, there was a pool in the backyard.  In the coming years, I would come to love swimming in that pool and would play in it almost every day in the summer.

Video games are a great deal of fun, but they are a cheap pleasure compared to the delight I would gain from a swimming pool.  I had my attention fixated on the cheap pleasures of video games and had no understanding or desire to understand the greater pleasure that a house with a pool might offer.  Left to myself, I would have continued to pay video games in a trailer park.

This is how we are with sin and the things of this world.  We get fixated on satisfying our cravings for earthly things and miss out on the greater satisfaction that God is offering.  There is far greater pleasure to be known in our pursuit of God than in anything this world offers.  But we must take our attention off the worldly, mundane things that pull our attention away from God and allow Him to become our one great desire.

David had an understanding of this principle when he wrote Psalm 16:11 "Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore."  As much as we may enjoy the good gifts God has given us on this earth, there is nothing more enriching and satisfying than enjoying the presence of God.  Notice David says, "in thy presence," we do not have to say or do anything, we may simply bask in His glory and feel our hearts fill with fathomless joy.  He does not ask us to labor, work or strive.  He simply asks us to abide in Him and allow Him to abide in us. (See John 15) Nothing compares to the pleasure available to us if we will learn to dwell in the presence of God.

Again, David wrote, "Delight thyself also in the Lord; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart." (Psalm 37:4) “Delight" he says.  Think about that.  This is almost a foreign language for us.  Religion is about duty, responsibility and following the rules, right?  Certainly, there is work God wants us to do, but first and foremost He wants to find delight in simply being with Him.

God wants to draw out those desires from deep within our hearts and bring them to fruition.  We read a verse like this and we almost blush, because many times our desires are not good.  We want the wrong things and pursue them to our own destruction.  We want to fornicate, get drunk, and party until the sun comes up.  Or perhaps our desires are bit more prosaic, we want to binge on porn and Netflix and eat a gallon of ice cream.  We know these desires are not good and certainly do not lead to our flourishing.

But these wayward desires are only superficial, they are like a drape covering our true desires.  God wants to pull away that sheet and reveal what passions truly exist in the core of our being.  He wants to reveal these desires that He Himself put there.  When these desires are revealed, He wants to satisfy them through a relationship with Him.

There is very real pleasure to be found in His presence.  The thrill and rush of we found in sin cannot be found there, the giddy euphoria of all that is gone, but it will be replaced with something so much more profound and meaningful.  It is like we exchange the pleasure of eating a Twinkie for the pleasure of eating a Thanksgiving feast with family and friends.  It is like we trade a roller coaster for a road trip with a best friend.  Even these are pale metaphors, for God is eternal and glorious and no earthly pleasure can compare to Him.

Paul teaches us that God has given us richly all things to enjoy (1 Timothy 6:17).  God wants us to enjoy life, to enjoy food, drink, the beauty of nature, the coital relationship, even material prosperity is a gift from Him.  He lavishes us with so many good things, but the problem comes when we turn our attention away from the Giver and focus on the gift.  We ignore the True and Living God and worship idols.  If our heart is more inclined to enjoy the things of this world than to enjoy the presence of God, then we are in danger of losing our souls.

In an earlier post I described the joy and the pleasure that can be found in marriage, these are good gifts from God and manifest His glory on earth.  As much pleasure and joy as an earthly relationship can offer, God offers us so much more.  Jesus taught this in John 15, "As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.  If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.  These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full."  Jesus wants us to have fullness of joy.  He promises us fullness of joy.  It is available to us if we follow His will and purposes for our lives.

Whatever pleasure you may be holding on to that keeps you from really connecting with God, I assure you having an intimate relationship with Christ is better.  Knowing God is more pleasurable than anything this world offers.  For me it was porn, for others it may be drugs, social media, or streaming media, whatever it is, lay it aside, lay hold on Christ and let Him satisfy the deepest parts of your soul.