WHERE PLEASURE SHOULD LEAD US

'The Christian life is not an an ascetic life, but a life in which every received pleasure draws the mind up to supreme Pleasure, Christ himself, in his resplendent beauty. Joy is fundamentally a vision of God.' 

Dane Ortlund in Julian Hardyman, Jesus, Lover of My Soul, p.162.

PLEASURE IS A DIVINE DECREE

'...pleasure is a divine decree that we ignore at our peril. For it is precisely in enjoying the world God has made that we show how we have grasped the goodness of the God we say we love. Failure to enjoy is an offence, not merely an oversight. When the child does not enjoy the gift the parent has lavished on them, it is an affront to the parent's love as much as the child deliberately breaking the toy. No parent is glad that Buzz Lightyear sits pristinely in the box rather than being lovingly bashed and bumped in daily adventures. Real relationship involves seeing another person take pleasure in gifts given; delight is what we ask of the other as we freely give to them.'

David Gibson, Destiny, p.133. 

EAT & DRINK BECAUSE TOMORROW WE LIVE

'Those without Christ often abandon themselves to eating and drinking because sometimes it looks as if tht's all there is to do before we die. But those who love Christ cherish eating and drinking because it looks a little like what we will do after we die.' 

David Gibson, Destiny, p.111. 

JOY IS A PHYSICAL SENSATION

'For I myself find that if, during a moment of intense aesthetic rapture, one tries to turn round and catch by introspection what one is actually feeling, one can never lay one's hand on anything but a physical sensation. In my case it is a kind of kick or flutter in the diaphragm.' 

CS Lewis, 'Transposition' in CS Lewis Essay Collection: Faith, Christianity and the Church, p.269. 

ETERNAL LIFE

'"Just once, though" said Tom, "I'd like one thing. An ice cream cone so big you could just keep eatin' and there isn't any end and you just go on bein' happy with it forever. Wow!"

"There's no such ice cream cone." 

"Just one thing like that is all I ask," said Tom. "One vacation that never had a last day. Or one matinee with Buck Jones, boy, just ridin' along forever, bangin', and Indians fallin' like pop bottles. Gimme just one thing with no tail-end and I'd go crazy."'

Ray Bradbury, Farewell Summer, p.125. 

LOVE

'Nothing is sweeter in this sad world that the sound of someone you love calling your name.' 

Kate Dicamillo in Zack Eswine, Sensing Jesus, p.299. 

PLEASURE

'STARVATION DIET: If it feels good, it must be sinful.
FAST FOOD: If it feels good, do it.
BANQUET: If it feels good it's meant to be a preview of coming attractions.'
Christopher West, Fill These Hearts, p.164.