Made for God’s Pleasure – and For Each Other

One of my favorite sentences is the one put forth in the Westminster Shorter Catechism: “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.” It sums up the purpose of human beings so succinctly, and without a sense of drudgery. Glorifying God and enjoying him – two things I love to do anyway!

What’s more wonderful is that God enjoys us. Zeph. 3:17 talks of a God who “rejoices over you with singing.” That’s a beautiful little snapshot of how our Creator feels about his creation.

I used to think that personality represented a tragedy. It was the result of the Fall of Man, evidence of our broken connection with God and his original intent. It was something we just needed to resign ourselves to, doing the work every day to uncover our true selves and mitigate the personality’s effects on us and others.

Well, I still believe the work is necessary, but I’ve recently shifted my perspective. Rather than thinking of personality as a tragic mental brand, I believe that God orchestrates things so that each of us ends up with one of the Enneagram types. Each of these types deeply understands and identifies with a character trait of God:

Eights – Justice

Nines – Peace

Ones – Holiness

Twos – Love

Threes – Excellence

Fours – Creativity

Fives – Wisdom

Sixes – Steadfastness

Sevens – Joy

We have the opportunity, then, as we meet each person, to consider which bit of God they can show us. My focus on joy, for example, may cloud my ability to see the justice issue right in front of me. This is why humans need each other. We all look through a glass darkly, seeing only one perspective most of the time. But in community, we come together and assemble a larger picture of who God is. That picture serves us all, and it makes God happy, too.

So, we are made for God’s pleasure, and for each other’s, too. I think that’s one of the main reasons to “not forsake assembling together” (Hebrews 10:25). We would miss out on so much of reality!

Please share your thoughts on what it means to be made for God’s pleasure and what it means to live in community.

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