St Augustine, as he reflected on gratitude, identified two fundamental modes of relating to reality: Use and enjoyment. 

To “use” means taking up what is currently before us for the purpose of some greater end. Most of us are working towards a greater purpose and aiming to achieve something. This will be especially true in a society like ours.

Some of these purposes are focused on self.  There was a stage when we tried to get the best degree possible to secure a better future. Some of our fellow students become our competitors. Then we go through a stage of searching for a life partner.

Every friendship, connection and Facebook post becomes an opportunity to project a better image of ourselves. We start working and we join an office where we join many of our colleagues in the same race. If a promotion is possible, we want it. 

Using, using, using people, things and opportunities to push ourselves a bit further ahead. 

Others have more altruistic motives. They share the same mode of “use” in life, yes, but for the sake of others.

And as above, every stage of life provides a context and opportunity for this. This is to be lauded; Jesus did tell us, “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world but to lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36) You may have seen movies like Regarding Henry, Patch Adams or the more recent Up in the Air  and wept some tears of regret. 

The mode of “use” in life has its place – for self or others. 

Another way

“Enjoyment” has a different character. When we enjoy something, we are grateful for it, resting in the blessing of its presence.

Some of you will remember the first time you held your firstborn in your arms. Your child gave you a new incentive to leave work early and rush home. When I was on a three-week mission trip after Sarah was born, I was terribly Sarah-sick by the second week.

Someone said that the home is a destroyer of ambition. Indeed.

Time seems to stand still when I am at home with the people I love. Or it may be a book, a friend or a cup of cappuccino. Or it may be a moment spent with your ageing parent. 

One thing in common

So which is better – use or enjoyment as modes of living? We can debate about it. 

St Augustine teaches that we can only truly enjoy God and others in God. If we live to enjoy God, that is the ultimate. For the things and people we enjoy without God are finite and often end up in sad memories.

But in Christ, we are living not just for the present but for eternity. And in enjoying Him, we see people, things and the world around us with a different perspective.  

Perhaps there is something after all in the first line of the Shorter Westminster Catechism: “Man’s chief aim is to enjoy God and glorify Him forever.” 

This article was first published in the weekly service bulletin for St Andrews Cathedral under the “Vicar Writes” column. More articles can be found on the St Andrews Cathedral website here.