The Pursuit of Maximum Pleasure
(aka The Pursuit of Maximum Obedience)

   Some of you have heard me say that I don't like fun. Recently I've been thinking that actually the opposite is true. I like fun to such an extent that I am dissatisfied with meager measly attempts at it. I don't like "fun" because I want FUN, and crave a profound experience of it.
   So I strive to see if I can find it. I ask myself, what is the greatest source of pleasure, what has the greatest potential for maximizing my happiness? The greatest pleasure I've experienced on a consistent basis is that of being completely in love with someone. When my heart, mind and body are fully given over to love, I feel the greatest satisfaction that I've ever known. And this experience of mine is confirmed by millions of stories and songs throughout the world throughout history.
   Now as Christians we know, in theory, that God should be the ultimate source of satisfaction and pleasure. Everything good, everything lovely, everything beautiful, everything magnificent, everything awesome in the universe comes from Him. How much more glorious is the Creator than the sum of His creation. Our feelings don't have existence in themselves, they are part of creation. Every excitement, every joy, every moment of happiness comes from the design of God, and was enabled to exist by God. "You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore." (Psalm 16:11) God is the ultimate single source behind the trillions upon trillions of pleasures ever experienced in the universe.
   But as for me, I must honestly say that being given over to a romantic love where my heart is fully enraptured has given me greater pleasure in life than anything else. Being in love has given me more happiness than my awareness of the majesty of God and of all that He has done for me. This discrepancy is a problem. But the problem gets worse. Not only does my greatest pleasure apparently not match up with what it should be, but, you may ask, isn't it an altogether wrong focus anyway? Isn't the worship of God the correct focus, rather than the maximization of my pleasure?
   Interestingly, the greatest of all commandments is this, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might."
   Hmmm... suspicious.
   Very intriguing. This is where my detector of spiritual insights starts to prick up and say, "Stop and pay attention. There may be a gold mine right over one of these hills."
   What if... perhaps this is wishful thinking, but just imagine with me... what if it was actually possible to experience the Great Commandment? I mean in its genuine full strength. Come on, let's be honest, we don't love God like that. I don't love Him with all my heart; you don't love Him with all your heart. I don't know anybody that does. But what if we did? Wow...
   The greatest source of pleasure I know experientially is being wholeheartedly in love. The greatest source of pleasure according to my intellectual, theoretical belief is God Himself. What if these two massive sources pleasure collided together and, what's more, the point of convergence was the very point of obedience demanded by the Law and the prophets? What if God's great purpose for His glory, and our maximal satisfaction and pleasure really are one in the same?
   I think Peter gave the best description he could of what comes about when such a collision occurs. "Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls." (1 Peter 3:18) Let's not water his words down, an inexpressible and glorious joy is a huge joy. Rarely, if ever, could I call my joy in salvation inexpressible and glorious. But I really want that.
   My mind knows that God is the most beautiful, most glorious, most pleasing being in the universe (beyond the universe, really). So I say to my heart, "Explode with passionate love for God. Fall in love with Him. Enjoy all that He is. Enjoy belonging to Him. Revel in it. Soak in the rays of His glory and experience the pleasure of praising Him with all your strength." And you know what my heart does? Not much. It does move with a bit of love towards Him, and yes I am thankful for that. But frankly, people, sometimes I hate my heart. "Stupid heart, can't you even react to what is best for you? Come on, wake up, stupid, stupid heart."
   So I'm engaged in a struggle against myself. I wage war with my heart. I side with God against myself. "Lord, is there a way? Is it possible?" I ask, "How does the human heart work?" Clearly it does not respond with immediacy to commands given to it from the mind. But I have a mission. And the mission is based on the consideration that maybe there is still hope. I don't seem to have immediate and direct control over my heart, but maybe there is still a way it can be affected. God commanded us to love Him wholeheartedly, so isn't it reasonable that somehow, someway, that command can be fulfilled, at least to a significantly greater degree than it is now?
   Maybe there is something I can do to move my heart in the direction I want it to go. If so, I want to know what that is and do it. Or maybe it is only God who has the power to sovereignly move hearts (Proverbs 21:1; Exodus 4:21; Ezra 6:22; Acts 16:14; 2 Corinthians 4:6). In that case I can cry out to the Lord, and plead with Him to move my heart to obey His command, and to love Him fully. I can eagerly desire and expectantly wait on Him to move my heart how and when He pleases.
   There is nothing new under the sun. So I expect that God's word addresses all I need to know for whatever situation I'm in. One thing I see in Scripture is that a much greater measure of love towards God may not be an unrealistic expectation. I believe that the book of Acts was given as a model of the New Covenant experience, what the church and Christian life can be like. On the one hand, the New Testament church does not give us reason to think we can find perfection in this world. We see immorality, heresies, divisions, and all kinds of sin with its consequences. Yet, EVEN in the midst of its sin and imperfection, I believe that the church in Acts sets before us a model that shows a community under the New Covenant can live in a much greater level love relationship with God than we usually even imagine.
   Yet, once again, there is nothing new under the sun. And a cooled-off level of passion towards God also does not take God's Word by surprise. Of the seven churches addressed in Revelation 2-3, three of them seem to be rebuked and exhorted on this very point.
   "But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you, and will remove your lampstand out of its place - unless you repent." (Rev 3:4-5)
   "I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die; for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of My God. Remember therefore what you have received and heard; and keep it, and repent. If therefore you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come upon you." (Rev 3:1-3)
   "I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I would that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth. Because you say, `I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,' and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire, that you may become rich, and white garments, that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; be zealous therefore, and repent." (Rev 3:15-19)
   In all three cases there is a problem of weakened love towards God. And God's command to all three churches? Repent! When I hear Christians teaching on revival, the practical application is almost always, "Pray for revival." I'm not against that, but I do think it is flawed. What I see it in the New Testament is that when the church needed revival the command given to her is "Repent", not pray. Repent for revival. Don't pray for revival. Praying for revival allows us to think, "Wouldn't it be nice if we saw a lot of people responding to the gospel message and getting excited about it." Repentance for revival forces us to acknowledge, "Lord, there is something wrong with us. There is something terribly wrong with our hearts. Move us Lord, break us. Inflame our love for you." Repentance is harder than prayer, it hurts our pride more.
   It was difficult for me at first to confess to God, "I really don't love you that much. I do love you, yes. But in my mind I see a glimpse of how lovely you are, and my love falls so far short of even that glimpse of your loveliness." It was painful to admit, but I have to confess the truth to God, because I desperately want His cleansing. (1 John 1:9)
   Friends, this is my plea. Don't let the normal diversions and necessities of daily life satisfy you: work, studies, eating, sleeping, sports, games, conversations, TV, music. I don't think that any of this was meant to satisfy us in and of itself. "Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." (1 Corinthians 10:31) The abundant life is fully saturated in God. Hunger, yearn, crave after that God saturated life. I believe that we are missing out on a huge measure of the potential New Covenant experience. I'm not arguing against the necessities of "ordinary" life, but what if we could do all these things while glowing in the love of God? Isn't it at least worth serious consideration?
   What if, somehow, our affections could be set free from their chains. Set free to love God wholeheartedly. Think of how God would be glorified by a church living in the world as a bride who really passionately loved Him. Think of the joy and satisfaction in our lives, if our hearts were fully captured by Him. If only that were possible! Wouldn't it be worth an earnest, enduring pursuit? This is not a minor theological point we are talking about. This is what Jesus called the greatest commandment from the entire law and prophets. What God commands of us, I think we can confidently ask of Him for the means to obey. So I hunger and thirst for transformation from the Lord.
   Maybe it isn't realistic to expect much more than what we know today. But I'm not going to settle for that unless I can be Biblically convinced of it. As it stands now, I think we are missing out on an awful, awful lot. Don't assume that just because the church today across the country, even across the world, is in one particular state, that such a state is "normal". Perhaps we are collectively missing out on a large degree of what some believers throughout history have found to be a "normal" Christian experience. Do you hunger and thirst with me for a heart, mind, strength, and soul set more and more free to love God fully? Its about His glory, its about the Great Commandment, and its about the inexpressible and glorious joy of being loved by the most lovable Lover beyond the universe.

(It was through the ministry of John Piper that I was awakened to the Biblical teachings on how important it is for God's worshippers to delight in Him. Praise God for continually sending teachers to remind his saints of this truth through the ages, though we are prone to forget.)