The Blessing
of Joy
John
Piper tells Christians that the chief end of man is “to glorify God and enjoy
him forever.” In his book about how to
live out this edict, how to reach our end, our goal, I feel like he’s barking
at me. Others have been greatly blessed
by Piper’s writing on this, but in reading his book, I felt commanded by
someone I had not authorized to have power over me.
In
her new book “Enjoy,” Trilla Newbell whimsically invites me to live out this
dictate of glorifying God and enjoying God forever. By the time I reached the book’s end, I
wanted to do just that. Through art,
exercise, nature, food, community, church, and sex (yes sex), I wanted to enjoy
God by enjoying the gifts God gives and by seeing my true identity – who I am
in Christ. Newbell beautifully writes
about disciplines of joy. Where I was
repulsed by Piper’s dictatorial tone, I was attracted to Newbell’s playful way
of drawing me as a reader into her thought world.
Truth
be told, she actually is not inviting me to live out the life of enjoying
God. I am a man and Newbell writes for
women. I didn’t read the description of
the author’s intent ahead of time. I
just plunged into the book because I had enjoyed the previous work I had read
by the same author. Not until I was well
into the sex chapter did it dawn on me that this is a book for women, by a
woman. At that point, I felt mildly
voyeuristic.
I
don’t understand why women from conservative Christian backgrounds feel bound
to write exclusively for women.
Everything in this book is needed by men just as much as it is needed by
women. I still found great benefit from
the book. And I encourage the author to
write for everybody because she has things to say that we men need to hear.
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