The difficulty of delighting

My post a few days ago about how we change as we get older has been a topic I sometimes (often?) reflect on, especially in regards to my personality. Can a person truly change his or her personality?

Throughout my life, a consistent comment I hear from people is that I'm quiet and/or serious. I'm pretty much resolved to the fact that I won't be hanging from the chandeliers at parties, but I also don't want to be a stick in the mud. What really got me thinking about this was three things last week (outside of the reunion). First, I was meditating on a psalm and a verse struck me: Delight in the Lord. Delighting is something I'd like to do more. Second, later in the week, a friend commented that I looked weary. I didn't necessarily feel real weary, but something about my body language must have been projecting weariness. Third, Caroline was "reading" her children's Bible and was entertaining me with a story about Jesus putting his children in car seats (she hasn't read or seen the "DaVinci Code," I swear) when she noted that Jesus was from the Land of Serious. If you think about it, "Serious" sounds like a good biblical word for a 5-year-old. Not the adjective necessarily, but as a geographic location. Anyway, I kind of laughed when she said it, but then I wondered, am I from the Land of Serious? If so, how do I acquire an exit visa?

So, this week, I've been going back to that verse from the psalms and working on delighting. I must say it's gone pretty well. This goes hand in hand with my sermon last Sunday about thinking about whether our daily decisions bring us closer or take us away from a relationship with God. I've been paying particular attention to my decisions and trying to delight when I can, but it isn't always easy. I walked into my office today around 5 p.m. and right outside my window were four teens. One had a video camera and the others had skateboards. Our church's deck is a favorite place for skateboarders and I've had to make a few phone calls to the police about it. When I saw them, I immediately told them not to skateboard on our deck. They innocently denied doing it. Later, I wondered if there was a different way to handle it. I don't know if I can delightfully tell these guys not to skateboard on the church grounds, but maybe some sort of conversation could have happened. Delighting can be difficult.