Pastor’s notes, April 2021 Too Many Toppings
The last “Pastor’s Notes” dealt with what people want; toppings. These are the experiences that give pleasure and thrills. (This article will not be puritanical in the sense that some religious folks thought that pleasures are wrong. (Puritans were the folks depicted as having sour faces, only wearing black and being stern.) Well, God is the one who made humans with nerve endings and taste receptors on our tongues, presumably because God wanted us to enjoy sensations and have good food.) Some people chase pleasures because they like the sensations. But pleasure is not the end all and be all of life. Life has a much deeper pleasure. While we will not dismiss the physical pleasures, because they are a gift of God, we will not fall prey to the worldly concept that life is about seeking things that bring sensations of delight.
Now the main point. There are too many pleasures out there. Though humans seem to be limited to the five senses: taste, touch, smell, sight and hearing. We have a monstrous list of possible ways of experiencing them. Take hearing for example. A great joy is hearing the sound of doves in the morning after winter, as spring arrives. Or music. I find great enjoyment in music. (Of course, my children think I have a dull catalogue of musical delights, but then again, I think their list is inadequate and even sophomoric. (They don’t like my vocabulary either, see the previous sentence.))
When it comes to music, I like many categories: Classical, Pop, Swing, Jazz, Blues, Ragtime, Oldies, music from the 1920’s (yep, some stuff from 100 years ago) hymnody, Reggae…. The list continues. And each of these categories can be broken down into specialties. Get the idea? There are vast amounts of great music in many categories. So why is this a problem? This is just about the sense of hearing. We have the other senses where the same observation can be made.
The problem lies in that these can all be “toppings.” They are not central to life. But it is so easy to revel in them at the expense of growing a spiritual life. (Please know that music can lead one into deeply significant spiritual moments. It is just difficult to focus on spiritual matters if I am bouncing around between classical, jazz, blues….etc.)
Do you find yourself bouncing around from sense to sense, searching for something to hear, something to taste, something to watch, something to feel or smell? Yes, they are all gifts from God. Yet, crudely put; Satan and the world can throw them our way in such quantities that we don’t have time for God.
I find more and more people having no time for God. There are many reasons, such as stress, responsibilities, plans and the like. And when we add the “toppings” to relieve us of the pain of life, we miss the greatest pleasure, communion with the one who loves us and has died for us; God. Don’t let the “toppings” steal the top, God, from you.
The last “Pastor’s Notes” dealt with what people want; toppings. These are the experiences that give pleasure and thrills. (This article will not be puritanical in the sense that some religious folks thought that pleasures are wrong. (Puritans were the folks depicted as having sour faces, only wearing black and being stern.) Well, God is the one who made humans with nerve endings and taste receptors on our tongues, presumably because God wanted us to enjoy sensations and have good food.) Some people chase pleasures because they like the sensations. But pleasure is not the end all and be all of life. Life has a much deeper pleasure. While we will not dismiss the physical pleasures, because they are a gift of God, we will not fall prey to the worldly concept that life is about seeking things that bring sensations of delight.
Now the main point. There are too many pleasures out there. Though humans seem to be limited to the five senses: taste, touch, smell, sight and hearing. We have a monstrous list of possible ways of experiencing them. Take hearing for example. A great joy is hearing the sound of doves in the morning after winter, as spring arrives. Or music. I find great enjoyment in music. (Of course, my children think I have a dull catalogue of musical delights, but then again, I think their list is inadequate and even sophomoric. (They don’t like my vocabulary either, see the previous sentence.))
When it comes to music, I like many categories: Classical, Pop, Swing, Jazz, Blues, Ragtime, Oldies, music from the 1920’s (yep, some stuff from 100 years ago) hymnody, Reggae…. The list continues. And each of these categories can be broken down into specialties. Get the idea? There are vast amounts of great music in many categories. So why is this a problem? This is just about the sense of hearing. We have the other senses where the same observation can be made.
The problem lies in that these can all be “toppings.” They are not central to life. But it is so easy to revel in them at the expense of growing a spiritual life. (Please know that music can lead one into deeply significant spiritual moments. It is just difficult to focus on spiritual matters if I am bouncing around between classical, jazz, blues….etc.)
Do you find yourself bouncing around from sense to sense, searching for something to hear, something to taste, something to watch, something to feel or smell? Yes, they are all gifts from God. Yet, crudely put; Satan and the world can throw them our way in such quantities that we don’t have time for God.
I find more and more people having no time for God. There are many reasons, such as stress, responsibilities, plans and the like. And when we add the “toppings” to relieve us of the pain of life, we miss the greatest pleasure, communion with the one who loves us and has died for us; God. Don’t let the “toppings” steal the top, God, from you.