Don’t let the title of N. D. Wilson’s latest essay fool you.  “Lighten Up, Christians: God Loves a Good Time” sounds a little frivolous, but it has a real seed of truth inside it’s fun-loving shell.  And while there’s nothing wrong with fun, there’s something really good about where the essay ends up.  From the article’s beginning:

We Christians are the speakers of light. We are the proclaimers of joy. Wherever we go, we are the mascots of the gospel, the imagers of the infinitely creative Father, and the younger brothers and sisters of the humbled and triumphant Word. We speak in this world on behalf of the One who made up lightning and snowflakes and eggs.

Or so we say.

Wilson spends much of the article calling us on our stodginess, which is well and good and often appropriate.  He contrasts our disposition with that of God, creative and whimsical.  Then, in a brilliant turn that echoes Peterson and Lewis:

We should strive for holiness, but holiness is a flood, not an absence. Are you the kind of parent who can create joys for your children that they never imagined wanting? Does your sun shine, warming the faces of others? Does your rain green the world around you? Do you end your days with anything resembling a sunset? Do you begin with a dawn?

He ends by moving from question to command:

Speak your joy. Mean it. Sing it. Do it. Push it down into your bones. Let it overflow your banks and flood the lives of others.

A tall order, of course, striving to be like God.  Holiness is probably both the best and the worst word for it.  At it’s best, holiness is robust and mesmerizing.  At it’s worst, it is twisted and deflated by human self-righteousness.  The way Wilson puts it, though, makes we want to strive to be like the God with the flood of holiness.