Two Roads Diverge, Part 3

At His right hand are pleasures forevermore.

I am a person that looks for his own pleasure and usually in all the wrong places. It is very easy to find someone to bring me pleasure, but it is always only temporary. However, the pleasures available to us from God are always available. I think it is a matter of knowing when and where and how to open ourselves to those pleasures.

I think of a sunset. Most people turn their head to watch a sunset. It is unlikely you’ll find a sunset to which you respond, “humph.” Even the worst sunset brings shalom to a hectic day. Yet, the sunset doesn’t last forever. It’s gone before long, and that is what gives it so much pleasure power. If we were bathed in a lifetime of the sun setting, perhaps following the turning earth in a super fast airplane just above the ground to have a continuous look, the gasping pleasure would become, “ho hum.” It would be the same if we stood at a great waterfall, forever, or walked the ocean beach, forever, or stood at the top of a high mountain, forever. The reason we experience such intensity is because, whatever the pleasure, it is fleeting. So the pleasures from God are not unending, but their availability is forever.

One more thought, or actually a question, “Is pain a pleasure intensifier?” It seems to be so for me. The emotional pain I have caused in myself and others seems to make my sense of joy deeper and wider and higher. Sometimes when the pain is raw and intense, each long and yawning breath is a gift that brings life and peace and hope. Each and every breath is itself a joie de vivre. Lots of pleasures at God’s right hand are as simple as a breath if we know when and where and how to look.