life was/is designed to be enjoyed!

Let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching. – Hebrews 10:22-25

I know… it’s Sunday morning and I usually tend to post some meme designed to get everyone excited about heading in to church for worship.

I’ll still encourage you to make your way to worship. Church is the absolute best way to both enjoy Sunday morning and equip ourselves for the coming week. But today’s post stands as a simple testimony of gratitude for a good Saturday up in Richmond. Dinner with good friends Friday evening; visiting with Naomi and Craig; enjoying the grandkids; then golf with my good friend, Ray.

CHILLY! When we teed off it was still around 40-degrees. However, Saturday was a clear, sunny day, and by the time we finished the temps were in the mid 50’s. I’ve got to tell you, the contrast from sweltering, sweaty, heatstroke, Florida golf was hard to miss!

Most of the trees here have lost their leaves, but there is still enough color to make all 18 holes a spectacular display of autumn beauty. We both played terrible golf, worthy of the best ever blooper highlight reel, but every shot – and there were a lot of them – was as much fun as if we’d been making pars and birdies all day.

JOY! My point this beautiful Sunday morning is that life was designed to be enjoyed. We were created, and placed here in this amazingly beautiful world, for the purpose of knowing God, of exploring relationships, and of experiencing joy.

I can have more fun on the golf course with my good friend when I understand the simple truth that I was created with a purpose. Golf is more fun… marriage is more fun… hiking is more fun… good food is more fun… relationships are more fun… travel is more fun… work is more fun – indeed everything can be a more joy-filled experience… when we acknowledge and explore the possibility of relationship with God, and then live like we mean it, because God most certainly meant something exceptional when we were created.

So go ahead, jump into your car and zoom on over to church this morning, and be most genuinely thankful for this absolutely perfect fall day, and worship your heart out with the community of faith, and give generously, because everything we have already belongs to God; and then live like you mean it – live like God means it.

It’s why we were created. As the catechism teaches: “To love God and to enjoy God forever!”