April 1, 2021

The Delight of God

Five of the great joys in my life are my children: Walter, Isabel, Harry, Ralph, and Simon. I work from home a lot. I work at home some days, and I work at home some evenings and a little bit on the weekends. And if I'm not on the phone, I like to keep my office door open. And from time to time, one of the kids will wander in, and they come for different reasons. But there's a walk they have when they come in and they need to talk. They want to talk. There's something on their mind. They come into the room differently. They walk differently. They sit down differently. They choose different chairs based on what they come in to talk about. And it's always a fascinating experience. Often, they will stumble around a little bit, talking about their day, asking about my day. You can see they're getting comfortable. They're getting comfortable. They're probably taking my temperature. They're probably trying to get a sense of is Dad in a good mood, is Dad not in a good mood, is Dad in the mood to talk, is Dad distracted with his work. And so I've learned to try to step away from work and to come over to the other side of the desk and to sit next to them or to sit on the couch with them and explore whatever it is that has brought them into my office, to explore whatever it is that's going on in their little hearts and minds and souls that's had them wandered down to that end of the house and cross the threshold of my office and take a seat and start talking. And it's always a fascinating experience.

It always makes me think of a couple of things. It always makes me think of a couple of things. In chapter eight of Proverbs, King Solomon talks about the delight of God. Now, what delights God? What brings God delight? And Proverbs concludes that the delight of God is to be with his sons and daughters. Nothing brings God more delight than just being with us. And it's a beautiful. It's an incredibly powerful concept. We'll talk a little bit more about it in a minute. The second thing that this always makes me think about is an Eliot Morris song, and the song's called “Anywhere with You”. It's from Eliot's children's album. It has a great beat. It has a great message and essentially saying that what does perfect look like: anywhere with you is a perfect day. Anywhere with you is a perfect moment. Anywhere with you is what brings delight. I always think of these two things when I have these encounters with my children.

But the other thing it leaves me to think about and the thing I really want to encourage you to delve into is a question that I think animates our lives and plagues our lives. It's perhaps one of the most important questions we can ever explore and that is: what do you have to do to be loved? You see, when we're very young, different people in our lives, they teach us if you do this, you'd be loved. If you do that, you'd be loved. If you do this other thing, you'd be loved. And then, the culture comes along on top of that and says, "As long as you do this, you'd be loved. If you don't do that, you won't be loved." And so this question, “What do you have to do to be loved?” becomes central to our lives. It can have a very distorting effect on our relationship with God because the reality is that you don't have to do anything for God to love you. God loves you, okay? He loves you because you're His child. He loves you because you're an infinitely valuable human being. Before you do anything, say anything, accomplish anything, have anything, experience anything, you're already loved. That is the love that God wants us to experience, and that is the love that God wants to send us out into the world to share with everyone who crosses our path.

1 de abril de 2021

El deleite de Dios

Cinco de las grandes alegrías de mi vida son mis hijos: Walter, Isabel, Harry, Ralph y Simon. Trabajo mucho desde casa, a veces durante el día, a veces por la noche y un poco los fines de semana, y si no estoy al teléfono, me gusta tener la puerta de mi oficina abierta. De vez en cuando, alguno de los niños anda por ahí y entra, y vienen por distintas razones. Pero es distinto si ellos quieren hablar porque tienen algo en mente. Entran a mi oficina de manera distinta. Caminan de forma distinta. Se sientan de forma distinta. Escogen sentarse en diferentes sitios dependiendo de lo que vienen a hablar. Y siempre es una experiencia fascinante. A menudo titubean un poco, hablando de su día o preguntando por el mío. Puedes ver que van poniéndose cómodos, van relajándose. Probablemente me están midiendo. Probablemente están tratando de ver si papá está de buen humor, si no está de buen humor, si está de humor para hablar, si está absorto en su trabajo. Así que trato de apartarme momentáneamente del trabajo y me paso al otro lado del escritorio para sentarme a su lado, o bien nos sentamos en el sofá a explorar lo que sea que los haya traído a mi oficina. Nos sentamos a explorar lo que sea que está pasando en sus pequeños corazones, mentes y almas que los hizo caminar desde un lado a otro de la casa, entrar a mi oficina, tomar asiento y comenzar a hablar; y siempre es una experiencia fascinante.

Siempre me hace pensar en un par de cosas. En el capítulo ocho de Proverbios, el rey Salomón habla del deleite de Dios. Ahora, ¿qué deleita a Dios? ¿Qué es lo que deleita a Dios? Y Proverbios concluye que el deleite de Dios es estar con sus hijos. Nada le trae a Dios más deleite que estar con nosotros. Y es un concepto hermoso. Es un concepto increíblemente poderoso. Hablaremos un poco más acerca de esto en un minuto. La segunda cosa que siempre me hace pensar es en una canción de Eliot Morris que se llama Anywhere with You (Donde sea contigo). Es del álbum infantil de Eliot. Tiene un gran ritmo. Tiene un gran mensaje y esencialmente dice lo que es perfecto: donde sea contigo es un día perfecto. Donde sea contigo es un momento perfecto. Donde sea contigo me deleita. Siempre pienso en estas dos cosas cuando tengo estos encuentros con mis hijos.

La otra cosa que me deja pensando y que realmente quiero animarlos a profundizar es una pregunta que a la vez estimula y atormenta nuestra vida. Es quizás una de las preguntas más importantes que podemos explorar: ¿Qué hay que hacer para ser amado? Verás, cuando somos muy jóvenes, la gente nos enseña que si haces esto o lo otro serás amado. Si haces esto, serás amado. Si haces esto otro, serás amado. Y luego, la cultura se superpone y te dice: ­–Mientras hagas esto, serás amado. Si no lo haces, no te amarán. Y así esta pregunta: «¿Qué tienes que hacer para ser amado?» se convierte en el centro de nuestras vidas. Puede tener un efecto muy distorsionador en nuestra relación con Dios, porque la realidad es que no tienes que hacer nada para que Dios te ame. Dios te ama, ¿de acuerdo? El te ama porque eres su hijo. Te ama porque eres un ser humano infinitamente valioso. Antes de que hagas algo, digas algo, logres algo, obtengas algo, experimentes algo, ya eres amado. Ese es el amor que Dios quiere que experimentemos, y ese es el amor con el cual Dios quiere enviarnos al mundo para que lo compartamos con todos los que se crucen por nuestro camino.