I just finished reading A Resilient Life by Gordon MacDonald today. It was a very good read, in my opinion. I'm not going to get into a long winded summary, but basically the book describes the characteristics of what the author describes as resilient people - those whose lives and faith are equipped to handle the inevitable twists and turns of life. He, in turn, discusses how we might go about developing those characteristics in our lives.
One of things that I kept getting hit with throughout the book was that many of the things he was talking about were things that I'd felt God nudging me towards over the last weeks and months. I love it when God hits me over the head with things a few times just to make sure I get it. Seriously, I do.
A key quote from the book that jumped out at me in the very beginning and stuck with me throughout was this one: "I cannot claim that I enjoyed myself in that effort, but on a deeper level I learned the satisfaction of accomplishing something that ends well. Perhaps satisfaction is more important than enjoyment in the long view of life." I've really come to believe the truth of that statement, even in just the week since I first read it. As a result of some of my reflections after my reunion weekend, I have intentionally eliminated a significant amount of time spent doing things that I enjoy, but that provide nothing beyond that simple enjoyment. In their place, I have added activities that, while they may not necessarily provide as much pure enjoyment while in process, give me a great deal of satisfaction when they are complete, and serve a purpose that goes beyond simple pleasure in the here and now. Writing this blog is one of those things, as is taking time to read books like the one I just finished. These are disciplines I hope to maintain. Perhaps I don't "enjoy" my free time as much as I used to, but at the end of the day, I feel a lot better about what I've done with my time.
None of this is to discount the importance of simple pleasure. I still have plenty of time for that in my life. But I understand pretty profoundly at this moment that if I spend the majority of my time seeking pure enjoyment, I miss out on things that bring something in my life that goes much deeper and is much more valuable than simple enjoyment.
2 months ago
2 comments:
Sounds like an interesting book. I had a few things pop into my head as I read your post. :)
1. God usually has to knock me over the head a number of times before I "get" something, too. I desire more spiritual discernment so I can "get it" the first time. :)
2. I think I have a different definition of "enjoyment" than you do, although I'm not entirely sure. Maybe we should distinguish between enjoyment and entertainment. And maybe we should be concerned about what it is we take enjoyment in rather than whether enjoyment of something is a waste of time. The first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism is "What is the chief end of man?" and the answer is "To glorify God and enjoy Him forever." Enjoyment of something is not wrong nor is it a waste of time when Christ is glorified and we are enjoying Him.
Yeah, I didn't communicate certain things very well, in retrospect. I made a point of sticking with the term "enjoyment" because that's the word used in the quote, but I think it hindered my effort to communicate. In the context of the quote and book, it makes perfect sense.
Entertainment is a very good word for what I was terming "simple enjoyment", and for the kind of things I cut out in order to add in more time for things like writing and reading. My biggest decision was resolving not to turn the TV on until much later in the day than I usually did. And entertainment in and of itself isn't wrong, it's just not something that should be a primary goal in life.
And back to the quote itself, saying that, in a long view of life, satisfaction may be more important than enjoyment, doesn't mean that enjoyment is unimportant.
It is in fact very important, but it shouldn't by itself be the litmus test for whether we chose to do/continue to do something. He's basically looking back and saying there was great value to his life in staying with this task and finishing it well, even though he really didn't enjoy the process at all.
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