what it might mean to "enjoy"

The first Sunday of the new year, our pastor preached from Haggai. The title of the message: "consider your ways". The point: to consider habits and practices, and question them. Maybe changes are in order. We were handed a list of 10 Questions for the New Year, to take home, meditate on, consider. At first, I thought I would pull out my trusty journal and answer the questions all at once, like some sort of self-assigned homework. As I read through the questions, though, I realized that it would not be as easy, quick, or simple as I'd assumed. Each question brought up a slew of other questions for me, and I knew that I could not give a pat, "christianese" answer, or even assume I could give an answer.

So, what I decided to do was to systematically spend one week on each question. The goal is to write through the question, meditating on it, chewing it up, like a freewrite prompt I might give my students to help them think through the revision process or a reading assignment. Each time we write, it is another way to think. Thinking-as-writing-as-thinking. To that end, here is the first question to consider:

What is the one thing you could do this year to increase your enjoyment of God?
Of course, start with the hardest one! First, I have to think, well, how DO I "enjoy God"? Do I enjoy God? What does that even mean?

Well, I laugh at, with, and because of God-or moments I imagine represent His humor in my life. Like, when I'm singing in the car, really belting it out and feeling like, "damn, I'm good" and then right at that moment my voice cracks and I go super, confidently, loudly FLAT. Nice. And it's only me, and God. I heard it, He heard it, and I imagine His eyebrows shooting up in sarcastic surprise. And we laugh. That could be a moment of "enjoying God".



Or, it could be when I see a gorgeous sky-fiercely blown with clouds and suffused with sunlight and I recognize the hand that made it...and maybe even think to say thank you. Or, when I'm sipping a glass of wine, making a fun, immersively creative meal, listening to great music, reading a delicious book, taking a quiet winter walk, hand-in-hand with my husband, watching the snow fall silently around, sipping a coffee, savoring a moment of tranquility...and I sigh, and somehow know it's of God, from Him, meant to be enjoyed.

Perhaps it's gratitude-instead of saying, "ah! I never have a moment to myself!" saying, "my life is so full, so blessed." Every good and perfect thing is from God...to know that, to be conscious of it, grateful for it-perhaps that is a way to enjoy God.

I'll kick it out to you, reading this: what is a way to enjoy God more?