Pleasure

*Note: In the following post, I am heavily influenced by a pastor named Bob Shirock. Specifically, Shirock writes about Solomon's response to the pleasures he experienced in life in Ecclesiastes, and observes that we can enjoy pleasures in life if we accept them as God's gifts, and if we express our gratitude in their enjoyment. He cites Ecclesiastes 2:24-26 and 1 Timothy 4:1-5.

I’ve noticed something about pleasure: the highs can be followed by lows. This sounds obvious, but what I mean is that times of joy and fun in life's pleasures are wonderful, and can lift your spirits for a time, but they can be followed by a disappointment that comes from the realization that they are short-lived and will not satisfy us in the long-term.

I’m calling this a pleasure hangover. We gain happiness for a time, but see that this happiness is temporary. We therefore feel a subsequent low that leaves us still longing. It reminds me of a theme in the life of C.S. Lewis: sehnsucht, or a wistful longing for something more. He speaks of this in his secular literature, as well as his talks-turned-book titled Mere Christianity, his book The Weight of Glory, and in The Chronicles of Narnia. In the past, during a season of depression, this longing made me wonder what the use was for any pleasure if pleasures couldn’t satisfy us. I believed that if pleasure wasn't something that came to us easily, perhaps it could be earned. I felt, then, that the only way to find pleasure was to discipline myself to feel good enough to earn it. Really, though, I was still depending on pleasure as my goal. I had put my hope in it by seeing it as the end result of a life lived to earn it. The result was catastrophic: not only did I reject pleasures, but I also rejected needs, including relationships. It only worsened my depression. I didn’t realize at the time that Scripture helps in addressing this, what I now know is a false mindset. Read 1 Timothy 6:17-18:

“Command those who are rich in this present world not to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.”

Paul doesn't say to reject wealth, which he rightly says is uncertain, but to put your hope in God. The next part of the sentence shows that we don't have to reject pleasure. Indeed, God gives pleasures to us "for our enjoyment." Instead of being the ultimate goal, however, they are understood as gifts from God.*

Read, too, Colossians 3:1-4. Paul had just finished writing that human regulations are powerless to restrain sensual-indulgence (a form of pleasure). His solution was different:

“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, you also will appear with him in glory.”

While we cannot find ultimate fulfillment in this life, we can anticipate heaven and the glory of God in all his goodness. With that in mind, the pleasures of this world are but a reminder of something more that will be our ultimate pleasure. When understood in that way, we will neither reject those pleasures nor depend on them for our fulfillment. Rather, we can receive them with gratitude as a gift. Such an attitude, experiencing pleasures as God’s gifts, and maintaining a gratitude for them, will not destroy our longing, but emphasize the hope we have that it will one day be satisfied in Christ.

*Again, this idea of the enjoyment of pleasure as a gift from God comes from Bob Shirock.