I love this line from the prayer entitled “God of All” in the Puritan prayer book The Valley of Vision:

There is no comfort in anything apart from enjoying thee and being engaged in thy service; Thou art All in all, and all enjoyments are what to me thou makest them, and no more.

I love the idea of “enjoying” God, although I cannot say that this sort of language has been common in my faith experience. I come from a long line of people who were more likely to talk about “fearing” God than to speak of enjoying Him. But this is the framing assumption for the author of the prayer. God is not opposed to our joy. Our greatest flourishing is found by attending to joy: enjoying God.

But the line that most resonates with me is downstream of this one: “all enjoyments are what to me thou makest them, and no more.” Much of the heartache in my life has come from enjoying things beyond their station, from the tunnel vision of fixating here or there for my joy. But the prayer calls me to enjoy things with integrity, to enjoy things in the way God has made them to be enjoyed. There is congruence between our enjoyment of material things and the Maker’s intent for His creation. Pressing these enjoyments beyond their limits violates their purposed design. It’s living without integrity. And all the way back to the Garden, we have been tempted to enjoy things this way — to delight in them without heed of their limits.

Joy is the great gift of God.

He delights when our enjoyment is in line with His intention.

May I find joy in your creation in this way, O Lord.