extra-ordinary

“It’s the invitation to actually live, to fully participate in this amazing life. […] I've seen
plenty of people turn down an invitation to fully live.” (Goff, 80)

My room-mate has shared some wonderful quotes from the book she is reading, Love Does by Bob Goff. In the chapter, There Is Room, Goff describes how we decline the invitation of living a full life in Christ; we continue to take pleasure in the things we have without fully enjoying them and meanwhile completely ignoring and denying God. “Turning down this invitation… looks like numbing yourself or distracting yourself or seeing something really beautiful as normal.” I think that is the problem when we do not savour. When we just let things ‘roll over’ us and accept them without seeing the beauty. In fact, as Goff says on the same page, “we get head-faked into thinking we haven’t really been invited. But you see, we have been invited – every day, all over again” (80). When we accept the invitation to enjoy life we will become closer to God and fall more in love; we will joy in the small things and become happy.

                Just like Goff, Thornton Wilder says “My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither, but just enjoy your ice cream while it’s on your plate.” Lyubomirsky opens her 'savouring' happiness activity with this quote, and I believe it is very true. At times it is good to just be still and enjoy what we have been given. To savour what we have, or had, or are going to have and enjoy it. Let that joy wash over us and make us happy. But the problem is that we rarely take the time to live in the present and savour it. I believe that it is effective to savour.

                Just before writing this response I made myself some time. I sat here at my desk just before this thinking how lovely a cup of tea would be. I boiled the water and picked the type of tea. I brewed and brought the cup of hot tea to my room. Just the smell,oh the smell of my mint truffle tea made me happy inside. Then feeling the steam and the warmth of the cup; it too made me happy. Had I not been doing this savouring exercise I would not have realized how I can let a cup of hot tea make me happy. Throughout this week I allowed the ordinary things to become extraordinary, to savour them and reflect on them. I saw a bright pink sky early this morning while eating my breakfast. No one else was up and I was given the gift of savouring a glimpse of the sunrise. What a great start to the day. This past Friday I was walking to the main office at Redeemer before 8 in the morning, where I work each day. I was happy to be there, walking and rejoicing that it was Friday; the line from a song came to mind, ‘it’s good to be alive…’ A coffee date or hanging out with friends this weekend overwhelmed me with joy, how blessed am I to have friends! It’s the little things that get me, where I can fully savour through enjoyment and realization. Gratitude and awe wash over me as I realize God’s constant faithfulness and love towards me.

                I had other moments, when I didn't savour. I had dessert and wolf it down because it was so yummy, but I hardly even tasted it because I ate so quickly. Or I wake in up and go through the motions, hardly giving my body time to realize how good it is to be alive, to live, and to be; how beautiful it is and what a blessing that I may accept the invitation to joy in the new day. It is those moments that I realize how the beauty passes before me and I see it as normal; I expect it to be there.

                This exercise made me realize that if I savour more I also see God more. When I allow myself to see God in the small things of like, like that cup of tea or walking to work, I believe that I am more likely to see God in the big things too. But if I don't allow myself to see God in the ordinary, I am more prone to not allow myself to see Him in the extraordinary. The Westminster Shorter Catechism states that my calling is to “is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.” Through savouring I can glorify God and enjoy Him, through which I may experience true happiness. Savour than each moment, and rejoice in the Lord always, no matter the circumstance (Phil. 4).