The Things of Earth: Treasuring God by Enjoying His Gifts

Before reading The Things of Earth, I had never heard the term Christian hedonism. Apparently, this idea has been promoted by John Piper, but it is seen in the writings of Jonathan Edwards and other theologians.
Christian hedonism is based on the concept that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. We magnify Christ in the right enjoyment of creation and culture.
There is a struggle with whether one loves God’s gifts too much and whether one loves God enough. What are we do with the things of the earth? In Colossians 3 “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” Yet I Timothy 4 states “Everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving.”
Rigney attempts to answer the tension of two opposing ideas. At one extreme, there is the Prosperity Gospel telling us to seek earthly blessings as they are a sign of God’s favor. Our Christian faith is a means to worldly gain. The other extreme is that the sweetness of earthly joys is a snare, distracting us from our single-minded devotion to God. We were created to live in the world and enjoy earthly pleasures so enjoying them leads to joy-killing guilt if we follow this last belief.
“God is not only everywhere, but He is everywhere working.”—Jonathan Edwards
Creation should be understood as the constant and pervasive revelation of God. He communicates himself to us through creation.
“We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade the presence of God. The world is crowded with Him.”—C. S. Lewis
We recognize patterns in God’s world. It provides analogies that deepen our understanding of life and of God.
“Earthly pleasures are shafts of the glory as it strikes our sensibility.” C. S. Lewis
Rejoicing in creation is rejoicing in the Lord. The misuse and abuse of God’s good gifts are pervasive and rampant in our world though.
Rigney presents what he calls the Comparative View and the Integrated View as ways to reconcile the tensions he introduced in the beginning of the book.
We must not elevate the gifts above the giver. That is idolatry. We must not think it is our own efforts that result in having good things; that is ingratitude.
In abstaining, we project the image of God as a miser. “In despising the gifts, we insult the Giver.”—John Calvin. The gifts from God are given to enlarge our minds and expand our hearts and enrich our souls so that we might love God fully and supremely and expansively forever.
There is direct Godwardness—conscious, intentional focus and devotion, but there is also indirect Godwardness—what we see God reveal as we engage with the world. Indirect Godwardness and enjoying the gifts keeps God from being vague and indistinct to us. We must have the direct Godwardness to orient our affections rightly toward God, however. It should infuse all of our activities.
Rigney discusses the distinction between creation and culture (what man creates and develops).
There is a section of the book about suffering, death, and the loss of good gifts. This is part of our creatureliness. We see that it is God’s glorious presence alone where we can find fullness of joy.
That wealth/blessings are to be used for certain purposes is discussed.
God is fundamentally a giver. To be a creature is to be a receiver. When we receive, we should know it, enjoy and delight in it, sing about it, know Him in it, enjoy Him in it. Be grateful receivers.

Who’s Filling the Bowl?

Questions about suffering and loss and how they fit into God’s will enter our minds as we see what fills our beggar’s bowls. I have mostly operated under the idea that suffering is a consequence of living in a fallen world and/or a consequence of individual sin.

Trusting God by Jerry Bridges states that both calamities and good things come from God. He quotes Saint Augustine who said, “Nothing, therefore, happens unless the Omnipotent wills it to happen: He either permits it to happen or He brings it about Himself.”

I feel bewildered to think of God directly causing suffering. How can He be good and loving if He wills pain for His people? Yet, His plan of salvation included suffering for His Son.

Authors like Philip Yancey try to distinguish among 3 types of “wills” in God’s plan. 1) Intentional (goodness); 2) circumstantial; and 3) ultimate. The Bible teaches God is good and His intent is good so the ultimate must also be good. God uses circumstances to serve His ultimate will. The ultimate will is His own glory and the good of His people.

According to Bridges, all occasions of pain and sorrow are under the absolute control of God. People’s sinful intents and actions serve the sovereign purpose of God, but He does not make them sin. They make the choices. God is not the author of sin.

John Piper in the pdf file available on the internet titled Disability and the Sovereign Goodness of God discusses the man born blind in John 9. Jesus does not focus on the cause of the man’s blindness but on the purpose for the blindness, i.e., to demonstrate the glory of God, in this case thru healing. The explanation of the blindness does not lie in the cause but in the purpose.

Suffering can only have value and meaning in relation to God’s plan.

Bridges says the natural response to adversity is to seek relief, but our greatest need is not freedom from adversity, but freedom from the penalty of sin. If God’s love was sufficient for my greatest need, I need to trust it is sufficient for my lesser needs. Trust means not resigning ourselves to pain and heartbreak, but accepting it as part of God’s purposes and plan.

Most of the writings on suffering by evangelical Christians offer words of advice. Don’t dwell on the why, but focus on how God redeems the pain and uses it for ultimate good. Hard to do because sometimes the suffering lasts a long time, even a lifetime. Often we cannot foresee the outcome, the way God uses adversity.

No matter how limited our understanding of suffering, we do know God is always present with us and sees us thru our adversities. We have to quietly rest in Him and trustingly ingest the hard-to-swallow rations that fill our bowls (lives). I confess when I see no relief, I often fall into resignation. Let’s try to move to thanksgiving that God does have redemptive purposes.