"Take Delight in the Lord"

Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.  Psalm 37:4

“Take delight in the Lord” is the second ingredient to a My T.I.E (Take It Easy) attitude. To take delight means to “refresh or pamper oneself in something they can find joy or fun in doing.”  I find delight in two different hobbies that bring out my heart’s passions. One is in making music with my guitars. Another delight is in coaching beginners to deepen their joy in trying a new sport like baseball or connecting themselves to the guitar. But perhaps what brings me the most delight is when I am surprised by joy that reminds me of God. Last week I had such an experienced that continues to lift my spirit.

During our Christmas and New Year break, we spent more time housebound during our due to severe ice and snow storms here in Toronto. Cabin fever for kids has the potential to turn bad at any moment. During one of our bitterly cold and stormy days, my oldest daughter took out a 400 piece puzzle that had three different sizes of pieces. The kids all teamed up to successfully put together the large and most of the medium pieces. Then they sucked me into the puzzle for the small pieces that were the oddest shapes that I had ever seen.

Initially, I was irritated by the small odd shapes of the puzzle pieces. I had never seen so many shades of brown. I could not tell the difference between candle light and the pie. However, my daughter would find pieces that would fit together and joyfully sing “I found a piece. I found a piece! I-----FOUND----A----PIECE!” And the song rang out each time any of us found a piece. And when hard to place pieces were found there were high fives and dances to match the songs of delight. No wonder it took us five days to complete 80% of the puzzle!

Then we hit a wall last Saturday where the few pieces left in the puzzle were robbing our joy in doing the puzzle. That night we had small group where other kids helped to tackle half of what was left over a two hour period. Then one of our small group members stayed until the last pieces were placed. It was fun to watch how my kids continued to the songs, dances and high fives even until the puzzle was completed.

Like the puzzle, I am reminded how incomplete the picture of our lives are from our earthly perspective. Yet one of God’s great mysteries is how we begin to see pieces of our lives fit together through circumstance, but more so through the people God has woven together into His family. Hebrews 10:18-25 is a great passage that I like to surmise as for all those who boldly present with God at His throne are able to strengthen and spark fellow believers to live together in God’s presence in this tough and dark world. Perhaps my greatest delight which surpasses playing guitars and coaching is being with people who are striving to be with God. What delight comes from their experiences as God surprises them with another piece that fits together for His eternal glory.