A Treasure Deeper Than Pleasure

It’s been a while since I wrote. I hope that this is not just an intermittent post, though, but that I soon begin to write regularly again. Still, since I have not been writing, this post will not follow the normal format, and it has nothing to do with today’s daily reading (I hope at least some of you are still reading through the Bible chronologically with me this year – I’m really enjoying it).

To start with, does anyone remember that little song in the Burl Ives-starring holiday classic, “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer”? The snowman/narrator starts to sing about silver and gold in that warm, contented voice of his, and during the song he croons, “How do you measure its worth? Just by the pleasure it gives.”

We measure the worth of most of our treasures by the pleasure they give, don’t we?

So it’s intriguing that James writes (in James 4:1-3) about desires and the pleasure of their fulfillment so negatively:

What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure. (NLT)

Think about that last statement for a moment: you want only what will give you pleasure. Have you ever wanted anything that wouldn’t give you pleasure? Is that even possible?

James seems to think so. And I think we have some examples in today’s world of things we’ve wanted to do not so much for immediate pleasure as for the hope (not even always the guarantee) of great reward.

• Athletes want to push their bodies to the physical limit not so much for instantaneous pleasure, but because they hope that such discipline will one day result in competitive victory.

• Many people want to continue to attend school when it’s not required of them (e.g., college, grad school, etc.) because they hope that the not-always-so-pleasurable academic rigors will prepare them for more enjoyable, better-paying jobs.

So the next time you want something that you don’t already have, take the time to ask yourself whether what you want is just something to fulfill your desire for pleasure. If so, remember that there is a treasure deeper than pleasure—many such treasures, in fact. Sometimes I get more pleasure out of reading than out of having my reading interrupted by my three children, no matter how adorable they are. But where is my real treasure? In my personal reading time? Or in my children and the chance to help them learn to enjoy the life God’s given them?

There is a treasure deeper than pleasure, better than immediate gratification. Often, it’s a treasure we reject. But our good God longs to give us His true treasure—if only we’ll want it enough to ask.

For an overview of this year’s blog, please see http://threequartertank.blogspot.com/2011/01/why-do-believers-believe.html.