Pain vs. Pleasure

Today I want to talk about a book I've been reading. The book is called When I Don't Desire God by John Piper. If you've never read anything by Piper, I'd encourage you to. He's relatively easy to understand, and VERY practical in his teaching.



His basic doctrine, that most of his lessons are based on, is called Christian Hedonism. I want to talk a little bit about this, and I want to know some others' thoughts on it.



Let's first start by looking at the word Hedonism. Outside of christianity, hedonism is the basic thought that pleasure is the only thing that has any intrinsic value. Hedonists strive to maximize net pleasure (pleasure minus pain). So, Christian Hedonism, would be the equivalent of finding all of our pleasure in God. Piper's catch phrase to sum up this entire doctrine is, "God is most glorified in us, when we are most satisfied in Him."



I have to say, this makes a LOT of sense. I can't really even punch a hole in it. Here's the issue though. In order for us to find our pleasure in serving, and even suffering for, our God, we have to WANT what He WANTS. Piper says it like this, Pursuing what we want is possible. It is easy. It is a pleasant kind of freedom. But the only freedom that lasts is pursuing what we want when we want what we OUGHT. The depth of this thought amazes me. It is so hard for us to understand God's desires sometimes. Impossible, even, for us to understand them 100% of the time, ya know?



Here's another thing that convicted me though. I mean, woah convicted, haha. Piper says, "Many are persuaded. They see that the truth and beauty and worth of God shine best from the lives of saints who are so satisfied in God they can suffer in the cause of love without murmering. But then they don't say, "That's not who I am. I don't have that kind of liberating, love-producing, risk-taking satisfaction in God. I desire comfort and security more than God."

The thought that this paragraph is exactly something I would say upsets me. Convicts me. But inspires me. I want that desire. I want that abandon. Those saints he speaks of didn't get that overnight. It was a process of learning and seeking over their entire lives that led them to where they were.

Makes me thankful, so thankful, for God's soveriegn grace. Even though i don't want what I ought the vast majority of the time, He still has chosen to use me in the past, and I pray He continues to do so in the future.



I know i'll have more to share as I continue to read deeper into this book. But these thoughts from Piper were just too good not to share.

Desiring His desires,
Jeremy