At John Hadsell’s memorial service, Jim McDonald (the president of my alma mater, San Francisco Theological Seminary) shared a quote from EB White which reminded him of how John lived his life. Here is the quote in its fullness:
If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy.
If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem.
But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve (or save) the world,
and a desire to enjoy (or savor) the world.
This makes it hard to plan the day.
Savor or save? I mentioned this again later that day, over dinner with the youth from our Faith Exploration Program. One participant had written in her statement of faith that following Jesus would lead her to a fuller and more enjoyable life, and so we all started talking about enjoyment. I shared the first question from the Westminster Shorter Catechism:
What is the chief end of man?
Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy [God] forever.
Our chief end – our main reason – is enjoyment? Oh, how often we forget. We do-gooder types, always signing up for one more service position or taking on extra work here or there. We forget to allow ourselves to enjoy anything, being too busy worrying about it all. I don’t mean that we ought to do less service, or drop out of the important ministries we do here at the church. I mean to enjoy our work, to revel and take pleasure in it, to feel proud and happy and grateful for the little work we can do. Of course, sometimes this requires a robust sense of humor, when the task itself is odious – plunging toilets, for example – one can still enjoy reflecting on it and joking about it.
Sometimes, all it takes is a new attitude. I’ve been learning recently that hurrying doesn’t work well. It gets me through a task with more adrenaline, but usually doesn’t actually save time, and always kills the enjoyment factor. Instead of the constant mantra “I’m late – gotta hurry” what about saying to myself “God wants me to enjoy this”?
My prayer for you is that as summer comes near, may you have many reasons to remind yourself that God wants you to enjoy life.
Every Blessing,
Talitha