ENJOYING AND THANKING

In yesterday’s Journal entry I wrote about Bold Enjoyment. The verse was: Ecclesiastes 9:7
“So go ahead. Eat your food with joy, and drink your wine with a happy heart, for God approves of this!”

Julian of Norwich (1343-1416) theologian and mystic wrote:
“True thanking is to enjoy God. Gratitude is a true understanding of who we really are. With reverence and awe, we turn ourselves around toward the work God leads us to do, enjoying and thanking with our real selves.”

“True thanking is to enjoy God.” I think that involves her next line, “Gratitude…” If gratitude tells who we really are…so does ingratitude. A long-time mystery for me has been to pursue the walk of a disciple and not enjoy it fearing that joy was somehow living without constraint. I am fully convinced of the necessity of being formed by the value of the spiritual disciplines (silence, solitude, prayer, reading, meditation, etc.), but I am also convinced of the need for joy, levity, fun, adventure, awe, singing, dancing, tacos and chocolate cookies… and humming. It is Enjoying and Thanking. Erupting in joy.

“So you have sorrow now, but I will see you again; then you will rejoice, and no one can rob you of that joy.” Jesus