lord jesus christ; let me seek you by desiring you, and let me desire you by seeking you; let me...

Lord Jesus Christ;Let me seek you by desiring you,and let me desire you by seeking you;let me find you by loving you,and love you in finding you.

I confess, Lord with thanksgiving,that you have made me in your image,so that I can remember you, think of you, and love you.

But that image is so worn and blotted out by faults,and darkened by the smoke of sin,that it cannot do that for which it was made,unless you renew and refashion it.

Lord, I am not trying to make my way to your height,for my understanding is in no way equal to that,but I do desire to understand a little of your truthwhich my heart already believes and loves.

I do not seek to understand so that I can believe,but I believe so that I may understand;and what is more,I believe that unless I do believe, I shall not understand. Amen.

- Anselm (1033-1109)

What’s Your Story?What’s Your Story?Who are You? Your StoryWho are You? Your Story

Where are You? Your JourneyWhere are You? Your Journey

What are You Searching For? Your TreasureWhat are You Searching For? Your Treasure

How Far Have You Come? Your ProgressHow Far Have You Come? Your Progress

With Whom are You Searching? With Whom are You Searching? Your Community Your Community

What are you searching for?What are you searching for?The Search…The Search…

• for love, meaning, significance, etc for love, meaning, significance, etc …Happiness! …Happiness!

• Happiness is elusiveHappiness is elusive? What brings happiness? right

circumstances? more leisure? new job? different location? right friends?

? Stuff? Achievements? Relationships?

? “We search for a self to be, for other selves to love, and for work to do.” (Buechner)

Pleasures1. Derived from satisfaction of bodily appetites: Meal when hungry

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Rest when tired, Sex

2. Involve the will / mind: Achievement

Success

Winning others’ approval

3. Involve the heart: Personal relationships: Friendships / Family / etc.

Love / serve neighbor

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Devotion to people/causes

4. Knowledge / Friendship w/ God

Four Levels of HappinessFour Levels of Happiness

Each successive level betterEach successive level better

Each level has limitationsEach level has limitations

Loss at higher levels brings greater Loss at higher levels brings greater painpain

Duration:Duration: more enduring, lasts longer

Pervasiveness:Pervasiveness: deeper satisfaction

Involvement of human abilities:Involvement of human abilities: greater use of body – mind, will, heart, spirit


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With Happiness 4, we can enjoy all subordinate levels because we can enjoy God’s gifts without mistaking them for the Giver, in other words,

without idolizing them!

Pleasures Experience Limitations Bible1. Derived from satisfaction of bodily appetites: Meal when hungry

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Very intense

Immediate Gratification

Requires little intellectual activity

Food for physical needs is good; for emotional needs is damaging.

Short-lived pleasures can lead enslavement

Jesus enjoyed food /drink. Banquet symbolizes glory (Mt. 22:2)

Psalm 104:5, S of Songs

Unrestrained enjoyment: gluttony, drunken, lust


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Training of body

Control of emotions

Sharpening mind

Resolution of will

All can’t win

Luster fades

Winners forgotten

Obsession leaves little time for others

Achievements vanity (Ecc. 2:11; 4:16)

Blinded to important things (Luke 16:19-31)

Age (Ec. 12; Ps. 90:9-10)



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Mutuality / Intimacy

Sharing soul – not just abilities

More happiness in giving

Comes closest to satisfying deepest human longings

Children grow

Friends move

Spouse dies

Love fades

People let us down

Obsession / Manipulation / Control

Age (Ec. 12; Ps. 90:9-10)

Death



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Four Levels of HappinessFour Levels of HappinessIn this journey, be it noted, one gives up the

clinging, the craving, the attachment, the possessiveness -- not the thing itself. For all

the things that God made are good and beautiful and true. (Johnston, 1995, 149)

We use people for our purposes... Others cannot carry the load of our expectations; sooner or later they must disappoint us... We cannot love others fully and authentically until we detach ourselves from others. This is another of the great paradoxes of life. So long as our "love" is really a tool of transference, an attempt to possess and control, we will never be able to give ourselves; so long as we turn others into substitute heroes to save us, we will be manipulators more than lovers. (McCullough, 2004, 40, 41)


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First Things: To sacrifice the greater good for the less and then not to get the lesser good after all – that is the surprising folly… The woman who makes a dog the centre of her life

loses, in the end, not only her human usefulness and dignity but even the proper pleasure of dog-keeping. The

man who makes alcohol his chief good loses not only his job but his palate and all power of enjoying the earlier

(and only pleasurable) levels of intoxication…


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First Things: …every preference of a small good to a great, or a partial good to a total good, involves the loss of the

small or partial good for which the sacrifice was made…

You can’t get second things by putting them first; you can get second things

only by putting first things first. --Lewis, God in the Dock, 279-280.

Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get

neither. --Lewis


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If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my

earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably

earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest

the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or be

unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for something else of which they are only a

kind of copy, or echo or mirage. -- C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity


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Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord

finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and

ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he

cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too

easily pleased. --C. S. Lewis, “The Weight of Glory”

What’s Your Story?What’s Your Story?StoryTelling Questions:StoryTelling Questions:

Describe a time when a pleasure from level 1 – 3 was enhanced by happiness 4.

As you look back over your life, can you think of situations where you experienced all four levels of happiness together? Describe.

My God and my All!What greater blessing can I receive than your love?What greater wealth can I possess than your grace?What greater pleasure can I enjoy than your presence?What greater sweetness can I taste than your body and blood?What greater wisdom can I know than your gospel?Your wisdom is so simple that even fools like myself can

understand it.Your holy communion is so generously given that even

sinners like me are allowed to receive it.Your presence is everywhere so that even someone with

such a dull mind as I have can find you.Your grace is such a constant source of reassurance that I

can trust you completely for all my spiritual and material needs.

And your love is so warm and so forgiving that even a cold, hard heart like my own is melted. --Thomas a’Kempis

lord jesus christ; let me seek you by desiring you, and let me desire you by seeking you; let me...

Documents

higher levels

levels of happinessin

subordinate levels

chief good

searchfor love

greater painduration

greater use of body

great paradoxes of life