The key to who belongs in heaven is literally placed in scripture, as a direct quote from Jesus, for us to consider.
“Let the children come to me; do not prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.
Mark 10:14
If the kingdom of heaven belongs to these, what does that mean and how do I get on the list?
For a long time I thought to be like the children Jesus invites to Himself was to be innocent, free from sin, since that seems to make sense as a prerequisite for Heaven. But there is a new attribute, so clearly exhibited in children, that gets stymied in the typical progression to adulthood. This attribute is a new perspective, a new key to unlock a new way of being and living in this life.
This attribute is delight. Delight is an authentic, unfiltered expression of extreme joy. Joy to delight is like a spectrum, see my visualization attempt below. The “Joy Enhancers” are things that take Joy and elevate it to Delight.
Happiness — Gratitude — Joy –> (Joy Enhancers: Surprise, Pleasure) — > Delight
Children can delight in things that are quite trivial to adults. It’s their perspective that contributes to delight. For any number of reasons — because they don’t know how things work, or maybe even because their brains aren’t filled with a bunch of to do lists — they have space to derive pleasure from life.
There are lots of reasons why as adults we may not experience delight. Life gets into its predictable patterns, we get comfortable with what is around us and we lose the ability to be extremely pleased. Life can also become sad — loved ones move away or are gone, we have real stress or trauma from world events, work, relationships, etc. At some point we come to terms with the reality that we will die and there is loss associated with that; death is not typically a concern for young children.
There is a real risk that if we don’t “practice” Delight, we will decrease our ability to experience it. This is the same vein as longly-weds having date nights. On a date night, ideally we re-create a space where we re-discover each other and ultimately we delight in each other, as we did when our romantic relationship was in its infancy (see what I did there).
Lack of “delight exercise” is what is happening to the disciples in the scripture passage above. They (rightly) have a list of priorities to accomplish to help preach the coming of the Kingdom of God. Jesus’ playing in the dirt with small children doesn’t seem like an efficient use of His time.
But just like God made the Sabbath a commandment to make us take relaxing/relationship-building seriously, Jesus shows us that we need to take time during the course of accomplishing our mission, which for Him is the ultimate mission for the salvation of souls, to find delight and delight in things/those around us. I almost used the phrase “take time out” of our mission but even that attitude is dismissive of the critical role of delight. It is integral to the pursuit of our mission, not a sidebar or wayward path on the journey.
How do we do this? Here are some things I’m doing:
- Prioritize your goals so that you know what is important. Then treat EVERYTHING that is not important as something that can “wait” until you have filled up on rest.
- Make time to rest. This is time where there are no formal scheduled activities and can be spent entirely in pajamas if desired 🙂
- Say no to things that take a lot of time. Fill up on your “wait” time. Consider setting a limit on how many things you say yes to in a particular timeframe.
- Spend time with young children. Try to discover the world through their eyes. Treat them as teachers, as guides, and see what you can learn.
Thoughts in this post are tied to the following things I’m reading and listening to, highly recommend them!
- Podcast: The Place We Find Ourselves
- Book: Atlas of the Heart
Let Us Pray:
God, I pray that you would delight in me all the days of my life.
Teach me to see with the eyes of a child, that my soul will delight in the joy of the gift of life you’ve given me.
In my delight, allow me to participate in the infinite delight experiences with you in the forever that is Heaven.