q1/ What is man's chief end?
answer/ Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.
I often wonder why it appears that we seem to forget the 'enjoy' part: what is it about our inner workings that cause us to get caught up in the 'seriousness' bit of faith that we forget that 'silliness' is sometimes also okay. And even in that sentence, I realise I put a qualifier word in when it comes to silliness - 'sometimes'.
I'm minded of a conversation around one of the tables in the Rainy Hall a couple of years ago. We were discussing God, humour, and such like. I remember observing that in some of the stories Jesus told, you could almost see a twinkle in the eye and a grin; that sometimes, because we are so used to the stories in the bible, we lose some of the impact and the effect the stories may have had on the early hearers. I went so far as to say that I could imagine Jesus laughing out loud in certain situations.
A rather serious young woman, who had been frowning at most of the conversation suddenly spoke for the first time. I found myself being utterly reprimanded:
'Jesus would never laugh!' she exclaimed, sternly rebuking me.
A caveat: I do not, in any way, want to cast aspersions on how this young woman chose to work through her faith - that is her own journey, and that is totally fine, and if it works for her that is all that matters.
Reflecting on my own faith dimension:
Perhaps I am a very bad example of a Christian - I think I probably am - but in the dark places I have occasionally found myself in, knowing I follow one who has the capacity for laughter and enjoyment, as well as having the full gamut of emotions, has been the very thing that has kept me hanging on in there.
Sometimes, you have to laugh as part of engaging in enjoying God forever...well, I do.
[blogging ever more infrequently as I write up the thesis...]
No comments:
Post a Comment