Crucified for Joy

"I've tried more of me
and I come up dry
trading You for things-
things that go away.

My happiness

is found in less

of me and more,

more of You.

I have found the Answer is to know You

and be Loved by You alone.

You crucify me, and the world to me, 

and I will only boast in You."

 -Shane & Shane, "The Answer"

"Come, we that love the Lord,
And let our joys be known;
Join in a song with sweet accord,
And thus surround the throne.

We’re marching to Zion,
Beautiful, beautiful Zion;
We’re marching upward to Zion,
The beautiful city of God.

The sorrows of the mind
Be banished from the place;
Religion never was designed
To make our pleasures less."

-Isaac Watts & Robert Lowry, 1707 "Marching to Zion"

"He's [God] a hedonist at heart. All those fasts & vigils & stakes & crosses are only a facade. Or only like foam on the seashore. Out at sea, out in His sea, there is pleasure, and more pleasure. He makes no secret of it; at His right hand are "pleasures for evermore.""
-CS Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (Letter 22)