Why did you write this book?
Christians talk a lot about finding joy in Christ. When we face temptation or discouragement we tell one another that our joy should be in Christ. But what does that actually look like on a day to day basis in the rough and tumble of ordinary life? That’s what this book is about. I want Christians to enjoy God, but more than that, I want them to enjoy God when they’re washing the dishes or commuting to work.
Why do you think Christians find it hard to enjoy God?
There are a number of answers to that question. We live distracted lives in a distracting world. We’re surrounded by quicker, easier pleasures – albeit pleasures that don’t really bring true and lasting satisfaction. We’re often not good at making the most of the means of grace that God has given us. We sometimes box God up and allocate him to a slot each Sunday morning. Doing this means we’ve lost the ability to see God at work in all the details of our lives.
But I think there’s something else going on. This book started life when I realised that my own relationship with Christ felt somewhat distant and detached. I had a strong sense of living in relationship with God the Father – I believe he hears my prayers and organises the events of each day to make me more like his Son. In the same way, I had a strong sense of a living relationship with the Spirit – all I do of worth is done through his prompting and power. But Jesus seemed more distant. He died for my sin and rose to give me life. But that was a long time ago. This got me thinking about how the ascended Jesus is relating to me right here, right now.
I started asking everyone I could which member of the Trinity they had the strongest sense of an experienced relationship. Those conversations have been fascinating, with people giving all sorts of different answers. I think we need to cultivate a sense of relationship which each person of the Trinity – Father, Son and Spirit.
What is the key to a flourishing relationship with God?
At the heart of Enjoying God is the conviction that we need to think how each person of the Trinity is relating to us and how we should respond. To think about relating to God is too abstract. After all, what can we know of the divine essence of God – the God-ness of God? But God the Father, Son and Spirit each relate to us in a personal and intimate way – just as they have related to one another throughout eternity. What I try to do in the book is highlight the key ways in which the Father, Son and Spirit are each relating to us every day. So the book shows how we can experience the presence of the Triune God in the nitty-gritty of our lives.
Will the Christian life always involve seasons where we feel closer to or further away from God? How do we avoid the latter?
I suspect most us do experience times when God seems distant. But it never has to be like that. God never holds us at arm’s length. The problem is that sometimes we hold him at arm’s length. We’re the ones who are pushing him away. Perhaps we’ve sinned and so we hide from God in shame – just like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Or perhaps we’re toying with temptation and so we feel uncomfortable thinking too much about God or coming into his presence in prayer. But like the father in
the parable of the prodigal son, God is always ready to welcome his children when we come to him in faith and repentance.
Of course, sometimes life can be tough. God the Father may use difficult circumstances to shape us into the image of his Son. But tough times never mean God is keeping his distance. Indeed, it’s often in those times that we sense God’s presence the most. ‘Even though I walk through the darkest valley,’ says Psalm 23, ‘I will fear no evil, for you are with me.’
How do we know God rather than just knowing about him?
It comes back to this idea of tracing how each member of the Trinity is relating to us and how we can respond. Knowing God is really a shorthand way of talking about knowing God the Father, God the Son and God the Spirit. Take reading your Bible as an example. It’s easy to think of that as an educational exercise. And in one sense that’s right – we learn vital truths about God, the world, ourselves and the future in the Bible. But reading the Bible is a dynamic and relational act. God the Father is speaking to us about his Son through the Spirit. We don't just hear what God said in the past when we read our Bibles. Through the dynamic work of the Spirit we hear the voice of God to us personally today – words of love and challenge and comfort.
How can pastors encourage their congregations not to keep their relationship with God confined to Sunday mornings?
You mean apart from giving them a copy of Enjoying God! I like to think in terms of telling people ‘this is that’ – this wonderful truth that we see in the Bible is that experience we have each day. I’m always trying to make the connection for people between what we believe and what we experience. I try to do this both when I’m preaching and in one-to- ‘ What I try to do in the book is highlight the key ways in which the Father, Son and Spirit are each relating to us every day.’ one pastoral work. We’ve got to help people close the gap between Sunday morning and Monday morning.
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