Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice

chasing moments of delight

You know the smile that twitches at your lips at the first sip of freshly squeezed orange juice, or a perfectly crafted café miel? Or the soft sigh that rises from somewhere deep and weary and is finally released when you’ve settled on the beach, a book in hand, your skin warmed by the sun, and the breeze is just right? How about the way your whole nervous system seems to fizzle into a warm, gooey puddle once you’ve found your way into the embrace of the one you love? Or, the laughter that rips from deep in your soul and brings tears to your eyes when you’re finally reunited with that old friend; but, equally so the quiet comfort of a friend whose known you through every phase—the unwanted gray parts and the bright, bubbly yellow ones too? It’s in these moments—the moments of delight—that we feel keenly present. It’s as if, finally, all is right in the world and we’d do anything to stay here, in this shining moment, for as long as possible.

This week I realized how many moments of delight I was missing out on simply because I was too caught up in waiting for the next thing to happen. I was depriving myself of delight in my own life because the lives of other people around me seemed so much…sparklier?

And then God brought me to Psalm 37. The whole psalm is worth reading—three times over—but I’ll highlight verses 3-9 below:

“Trust in the Lord, and do good;
    dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.
Delight yourself in the Lord,
    and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the Lord;
    trust in him, and he will act.
He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,
    and your justice as the noonday.

Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him;
    fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way,
    over the man who carries out evil devices!

Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath!
    Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.
For the evildoers shall be cut off,
    but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.”

The bolded lines are the ones that especially stood out to me. Namely, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” How often do you remember to delight in the Lord? I think, somewhere in the chaos of trying to keep up with everything I’m supposed to be doing and who I’m supposed to be becoming, I forgot that I have an insanely beautiful life and an insanely beautiful God. A God who is beyond worthy of delighting in—no matter the present circumstances.

Perhaps you’re waiting for your big break, for a positive pregnancy test, for the right house to hit the market, or your 11th offer to be accepted, for the promotion, for Mr/Mrs right to come along, for graduation, or the dream job. We’re all waiting for something. Waiting on the Lord isn’t a bad thing, in fact we’re told to “wait patiently for him.” However, within that waiting, I can forget to delight in the life God has already blessed me with.

His goodness is rich and his blessings are abundant—they’re in the embrace of a loved one, in the quiet gurgle of the ocean, in the sweet or earthy things that your sip on. God’s goodness is in the laughter of an old friend. It’s all around us—we need only delight in it. Maybe it’ll feel silly at first, but how lovely would your day be if you stepped into it with the simple goal of finding reasons to delight in God as often as you could?

It’s like gratitude, but better. It’s the difference between “thank you” and awe. Awe and delight are pausing simply to marvel in the goodness of God for no other reason than to give him praise, to let the smile slip across your face, the laugh escape your lungs because you’re delighted to be here.

I think when David wrote, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart,” it could be that some of those dreams may begin to come true (you get the job, you find the house etc.) or, more likely, I think those dreams begin to be whittled back to their core. What is it that your heart truly desires? To feel safe? To be chosen? To be passionately invested in something? To nurture and love others? Once those desires become less attached to this world, and more attached to our Heavenly Father’s, the ways in which those desires can come true begin to multiply. Suddenly “the dream job” could look 1,000 different ways. The life you thought you wanted might begin to shift ever so slightly. The desires of your heart remain the same, but by delighting in the Lord, he’s fulfilling them in ways beyond your imagination—and it’s so much better.

Maybe instead of being intimidated by “I don’t know what the next chapter of my life is going to look like,” we should be nervous to ever think that we do.

Things I will cling to are these: I no longer want to “fret (over) myself,” nor compare what God is doing in my life to what he’s doing in someone else’s, instead, you’ll find me stepping out in faith, holding the plans for my life loosely (because I’m sure God will always come up with something better), and as often as I think of it, I’m delighting in the Lord.

And this remains true: in these moments—the moments of delight—we feel keenly present. It’s as if, finally, all is right in the world and we’d do anything to stay here, in this shining moment, for as long as possible. Instead of pursuing the next best thing, we’re delighting in the here and now, and that is better than any beach day or freshly squeezed orange juice could ever be.