I just coming back from Japan for Holiday, and although I like all the beautiful scenery that Japan has, one of the highlights was their delicious food. We have been eating a lot, maybe one of the reason is because we walk A LOT. Yes with capital letters there.. because we surely walks about 22000 to 33000 steps each day. It was very tiring, and i recall every time we get back home at around 11pm ish every day, i had to massage my own leg before sleeping because both of my legs feel sore. Anyway.. every time we had the opportunity to have a rest for food, i felt excited because not just it taste really nice, but it gives me the time to rest, and enjoy after all those “hard work” of doing hours of walking. Out of those foods we have, the most we had is “Ramen”. We enjoyed it so much because it taste really authentic, and also very delicious.
During those time, my mind remember the first time God gave food to Adam. God did not just gave Adam one type of food, but various kind of foods that Adam can have. That means, food is not just something we take in order that we can live. Food is not like a fuel to a car, it is more than that. It is not just something that we have to consume so that we can live. God gave us food with various taste and not just one taste, so that we can enjoy them. Did you ever thought if God just gave banana to Adam? or all humanity can only eat corn? and only a steamed corn without anything? No.. In Japan we tried plenty types of food.. and even with ramen, from one ramen to another they have different taste, and ingredients. All of these was so that i could enjoy. But then I remember a verse from 1 Corinthians 10:31 that says “So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God”. Now, if God gave food not just for our live, but also for enjoyment, what does this to do with God’s glory?
Indeed, a feeling of enjoyment towards an object gives glory to that object. Let me give you some illustration, lots of perfume ads on tv sometimes shows a man who has a bad body odour, and so there is this lady which then taking a few steps away from him because she does not like the smells. She does not enjoy being closer to him because he smells bad. But then there is this guy telling him to use this perfume so that he can get a nice smell, so he use that perfume, and suddenly that girl goes closer to him - and the ads ends with a smile from this young man’s face. Are you familiar with those kind of advertisement? or can you picturised them in your mind? Now, We can say that perfume he wore in a way give him that “glory”. People enjoy the smells of that perfume who is attached to that man. Another example would be a painter who takes pride of his painting because everyone enjoys and keep watching on his painting; or a musician who performs on stage, and audience give him a standing applause because they enjoy the shows so much, etc. so this is the thing: Enjoyment always gives glory to something. The question is, do we give the glory to the right one or not? When i enjoy my Ramen, indeed i was enjoying it, but the next question is whether I give the glory to God meaning I realise that this Ramen, was God’s blessing to me so that i can enjoy it, or do I praise the chef and stop there.. or even worse I just like the Ramen and full stop there.. I don't care enough to think that I can enjoy it because God give that enjoyment to me.
Think about it, even the best chef in the world cook you a very delicious food - maybe a kobe beef steak, maybe a bbq duck, or anything.. when you are sick, and you feel nausea.. or when you are just coming out from the operation room (for those that had will know how it feels), will you have that appetite to eat? can you say that the food is nice? The fact that you can still have the appetite, or you can say something is nice - that is because that feeling is given to you. God gave you the time to enjoy! God gave you the ability to have appetite for food! God gave you leisure! God gave you all of this not just for itself.. but so that we can relate to Him. We can say something is nice.. we can enjoy things in this life (including food) so that we can say “Oh God.. How wonderful you are.. You are beyond description.. You are so majestic.. You are Kind.. You are beautiful.. Thank you!”
Now all of these enjoyment we had in this world though, could not paint how wonderful God is.. We can enjoy God through many things in this world: food, drinks, scenery, relationship with spouse, etc. But then all these things in the world are temporary. Even i love Ramen so much, and we ate Ramen so much.. after few days, we feel kinda sick of eating it again and again.. those nice Ramen feeling won’t last; in fact our trip to Japan after nearly 2 weeks, we had enough, we had a good time indeed, but then it is the time to go back home.. Things you love in this world will not last. Your relationship with your spouse will not last, one of you will die first; your satisfaction will not last.. your thirst feeling will be there again.. you will get hungry again.. etc. Do you know why? because the ultimate enjoyment is not from this world! All of these enjoyment we had in this world is only a glimpse to the future enjoyment we will have with God in eternity. God is the ultimate enjoyment - that is why we can’t never find something that satisfy us in this world.
May we always acknowledge God, in whatever we do - we enjoy them in God. Let us give thanks to God who gives us pleasure with all things in this world that He gave us. May our eyes keeps on looking to the ultimate enjoyment that is being in God’s presence from today to the eternity. Amen
God Bless,
Paul Hartono
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