Sometimes we are in a groove. Sometimes we are in a rut. When we are in rut, we sleep through life and don't really live.
St. Irenaeus wrote, "The glory of God is man fully alive."
Psalm 1:3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,which yields its fruit in seasonand whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers.
The fully awake Christian is like a redwood at Big Sur. Behold the glory that God has wrought.
The psalm goes on to say the wicked are like chaff and this dried up image makes me think of the drought and how all too often we live in a spiritually drought-stricken land.
We are as close to God as we choose to be. Like the verse in Deuteronomy where God implores us to choose life.
We need to be awake and aware of the "company" we keep and steer clear of that which deadens our souls.
Our delight - leading to life and enlightenment- should be in the Word of God. Can we really delight in the things that deaden and darken our souls? I don't think so. Empty pleasures aren't pleasures at all. Reminds me of The Screwtape Letters - where C. S. Lewis writes that pleasures come from God and Satan seeks to trick us to trade true pleasure for that which isn't really pleasure at all.
How often, though, does church offer empty pleasures rather than true delights?
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