For Whose Pleasure Do We Live?

One of the perils of our technocratic society is curated everything. Personal preference becomes reality. This has the effect of placing us in the bubble of our own appetites. I was recently at a big-box store and saw a bin marked “Dress Tees.” Upon examination, they were normal t-shirts, perhaps with a little more ribbing around the sleeves. But they were marked “dress.” I can only assume that we have reached a demand for personal comfort that if a “T-shirt” is how I define “dressing up,” then who are you to say otherwise? I suppose a collared shirt is the new tuxedo.

                Parents should take careful note. Your children are growing up in the shadow of the god of personal preference. If they do not want to eat something, or dress respectfully to attend worship, or speak respectively to you, they should not be made to do so. Parents are faced with many hills to die on, but the hill of whose preference gets to rule life is the soul’s mountain. “For whose pleasure do we live” is the largest question of all. Following Christ means saying “NO” to living for self and crucifying one’s personal preferences upon the altar of consecration to him.

                Let us say that Susie wants to cover herself with tattoos – or get one. She can find many peer supporters for this self-expression. Her parents might oppose it, but the preference for a tattoo becomes a battle line of submission and love. Do you support my desire to do this? Can I not express myself? Very rarely is the Lord’s will and pleasure consulted. The right to express oneself is rarely questioned. It should be, often. We are not following Christ if we are committed to doing what we want at all costs.

                What if I want to use a little strong language to let everyone know I mean business? What if I want to show a little skin because I crave attention? Immodesty exists for no other purpose, and girls know it – almost always – as do boys. What if I do not want to talk to adults, or look them in the eye? What if I demand a smart phone? What if I simply decide one Sabbath morning that church is not for me? Or the Bible is not for me? Sounds like the devil’s tired old lie. “You shall be as gods, determining good and evil for yourselves.”

                You and I are not created to live for our own pleasure. We are created for God’s pleasure. We ruined ourselves and everything else when we tried to remake reality in our image. We were made to find true pleasure in pleasing God. In Christ, we have been redeemed from enslavement to living for self. It is part of our faith commitment to him that we live to please our Savior according to his word.

                In a rather surprising turn, when we make pleasing God our highest goal, he gladly gives us joy. He is generous with joy, but not the fake joy of personal preference. When we make what we want the measure of our happiness, dissatisfaction and discontent dominate us. We make ourselves and everyone around us miserable. We were made for God and living for anyone but him is the path of pain.

                Our Savior “always did those things that pleased his Father” (John 8:29). Because of this, he was able to offer himself as the payment for our idolatry of pleasing ourselves. He is now raised from the dead and reigning to help us to do our Father’s will. Since we are recovering self-addicts, the Holy Spirit is given to us to turn us inside out and restore us to true joy. Ask the Father for the Spirit. Walk in the Spirit. Abide in Christ. Raise the bar of pleasure in your life. Do not settle for the cheap thrill of curated reality. Set your heart on the highest joy of pleasing the God of love and grace.