Too easily pleased?

I am really enjoying our current preaching series on the first chapters of Genesis. For too long this key section of the Bible has been lost to controversy and so I’m delighted that Sunday by Sunday we are hearing God’s words loud and clear on the big questions of life that are addressed there. Marcus did a great job this morning on the implications of our having been made in God’s image: You are special! Next week Simon’s subject will be Sex in Eden, or something like that!

How refreshing to be getting God’s perspective on how our lives were purposed and planned to be lived, because all too often in our generation it seems that any other voice is permitted and preferable, no matter how outrageous, and God is gagged.
And here’s the irony – God’s voice is outlawed because the common notion is that he is a kill-joy out to that rob us of any pleasures that we may find for ourselves, when in fact God’s design is to do us more good than we can imagine!
CS Lewis in his book The Weight of Glory wrote the following: Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. . We are far too easily pleased.

Alister McGrath tells the parable of the moth. The moth is made to be attracted to the light, probably to help it navigate by the fixed point of the moon on a dark night. But with the arrival of artificial light, candles and floodlights, the moth got confused and ended up crashing & burning. Isn’t there a parallel with our situation? We’re made with an attraction to God and his ways for us, but we get attached to lesser lights that promise much but end up causing us to crash & burn. ’But suppose there is something that we are really meant to desire, that will not destroy us but bring us fulfilment & joy? This is the heart of the Christian hope.’

Have a great week

Goff