Wednesday, March 31, 2021

day no. 15,500: to enjoy is to glorify

Again, while reading Piper's The Dangerous Duty of Delight, I came across a great quote,

“I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed. It is frustrating to have discovered a new author and not to be able to tell anyone how good he is; to come suddenly, at the turn of the road, upon some mountain valley of unexpected grandeur and then to have to keep silent because the people with you care for it no more than for a tin can in the ditch; to hear a good joke and find no one to share it with. . . . The Scotch catechism says that man’s chief end is ‘to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.’ But we shall then know that these are the same thing. Fully to enjoy is to glorify. In commanding us to glorify Him, God is inviting us to enjoy Him.”
― C.S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms

Complimenting something complements its enjoyment. It is not as enjoyable to love something if you don't have the opportunity to tell someone else how much you love it. Expressing your delight in something only increases the delight. Sharing something good only increases how good you think it is.

"Christ is praised by being prized." -- John Piper, The Dangerous Duty of Delight

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