Francis Berger
  • Blog
  • My Work

Don't Bind Yourself To Joy, But Kiss It As It Flies

7/30/2020

0 Comments

 
I spent a bit of time contemplating the nature of joy today and arrived at the following thoughts:

1. Christianity is a religion of joy. How could it not be? But the joy permeating Christianity extends well beyond the joy we experience during our transitory mortal lives.

2. Christians must not limit their experience and comprehension of joy to this world in much the same way they must not limit their experience and comprehension of life to this world. To do so would entail restriction and over-attachment to the joys of this world, nearly all of which are ephemeral. Over-attachment to temporal joys could perhaps even lead to the pursuit of hedonism and a subsequent weakening of Christian life.

3. Detachment from and denial of temporal joy is not the answer. Christians should embrace all worldly joys that are aligned with Divine Will and Creation, but they should do so from the perspective of love. In other words, allow themselves to 'enjoy' worldly joy as an unenduring blessing/experience. They should not try to trap, preserve, or cling to the blessing/experience, but grant it the freedom to live out its course. Doing so should provide a glimpse of the enduring joy of eternal life based in freedom. 

As I finished thinking about these things, it quickly dawned on me that the thoughts were not my own (which is the case with about 99.7635% of my thoughts), but rather the reformulated lines of William Blake's short poem, Eternity:

He who binds himself to joy
Does the winged life destroy
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity's sunrise
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    RSS Feed

    Blog and Comments

    Blog posts tend to be spontaneous, unpolished, first draft entries ranging from the insightful and periodically profound to the poorly-argued and occasionally disparaging.
     

    Comments are moderated. Anonymous comments are never published (please use your name or a pseudonym). 

    Emails welcome:

    f er en c ber g er (at) h otm   ail (dot) co m
    Blogs/Sites I Read
    Bruce Charlton's Notions
    Meeting the Masters
    From The Narrow Desert
    Synlogos ✞ Aggregator
    New World Island  
    New World Island YouTube
    ​Steeple Tea
    Berdyaev.com
    Adam Piggott
    Fourth Gospel Blog
    The Orthosphere
    Junior Ganymede

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    June 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    April 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012

    Picture
    A free PDF is also available in My Work. 
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.