Enjoy! (July)

Open the Resource Pack PDF for all the information on the weekly subthemes and the daily prompts and Bible readings which shape our Daily Worship and live streams. (6 July - 2 August) Each month we have a Connect Bible study PDF that accompanies the theme.

Enjoy!

This month we are exploring what it means to enjoy life. God has created a vibrant world for us to enjoy, to thrill in, to wonder at, to laugh with, to rest upon. Jesus tells us in John’s gospel that he has come so that we may have life and have it abundantly! In you is a tenacious spirit, a powerful human spirit, able to find humour and joy, beauty and wonder, in even in bleakest of circumstances — led by the Holy Spirit who always urges you to light and life.

Enjoyment and happiness are not the same thing. Happiness can be a hard-won thing, a goal that keeps slipping out of our grasp, disappearing beyond the horizon. But enjoyment — the ordinary deep joy of living — can and does well up in the most surprising of circumstances. Happiness is often linked to our material resources. Money can’t buy happiness but it can buy comfort! But enjoyment springs up whenever and wherever a soul is flourishing in that given moment regardless of money. Enjoyment doesn’t rely on what’s in front of us, but rather what is within us, what has been given to us. It’s an essential quality of our spirit — to be truly in the moment. Sometimes wealth and comfort take us out of the moment, stop us enjoying ourselves.

Often, for all sorts of reasons beyond our control, happiness can be a big ask. Sometimes there can be little room for happiness with all the other emotions we have to contend with. But enjoyment is one of those things that can sneak up on us, even in the midst of sorrow, anger, regret, shame or anguish. A glimmer of life, of a spark of joy, in the midst of life.

Join us as we reflect on the enjoyment that wells up, springs up, and sparks into life in spite of everything. We are going to think about some of the activities, games, and hobbies that ‘take us out of ourselves’. Although, really, it might be more accurate to say that they ‘give us back to ourselves.’ 

As it says in the Westminster Shorter Catechism, our chief aim is “to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever”!

Weekly overview:

• Enjoyment springs up

• Enjoyment wells up

• Enjoyment sparks into life

• The sheer joy of being alive

Each week of this theme runs Sunday-Saturday and has its own subtheme, which contains daily Bible readings and prompts for thought (see the Resource Pack PDF for more information). Check out our Connect Bible Study Questions PDF that accompanies this month's theme.