This afternoon I finished the 6th book by CS Lewis of the summer (9th book overall). It was the first book in his space trilogy "Out of the Silent Planet".
I will admit, I approached this book with a fair amount of apprehension, and with a suspicion that I wasn't really going to like it. I'm hardly what one would call a fan of science fiction. All the remarks I've heard about the trilogy before could be basically summed up in one statement : you'll either love it or hate it.
I decidedly fall somewhere in between. It is not one of my most favorite works of Lewis - it ranks close to the bottom. I didn't really start to enjoy it until about halfway through the book. When Ransom finally encounters some other...beings, I'll call them...that's when I finally became interested. I don't really like it when an author spends a great deal of time on details, and when you're attempting to describe a different world to a reader, you end up spending about the first half of the work focusing on detail about the surroundings. The character development, intertwined with loosely veiled Biblical allusions towards the end, was what really caught my attention. I have always been amazed at Lewis' talent to seamlessly blend Biblical truths with fiction or mythology, yet not in such a way as to be called blasphemous. If you can make it to the end of the story, I would say that Lewis proves his ability in that area in "Out of the Silent Planet" even better than he did in "The Chronicles of Narnia".
Friday, July 31, 2009
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Reverence
Somewhere along the way something got lost.
When I was trying to describe my experience in the Balkans, viewing the various religions of Islam, Catholicism, Orthodoxy and Evangelical-Protestantism, I just couldn't find the right word to set them apart from the Church in America. A lady at my church helped me out. "Was there a feeling of reverence?" she asked.
Reverence.
I think we've gone way too far in the wrong direction. We've latched on to the fact that Jesus was God made man, and that He is Love. God is Love. And we've created for ourselves a "Jesus is my boyfriend" religion. When He clearly is not. Or as my Bib Lit professor put it "The Bible says that God is Love. This DOES NOT mean that God is some giant mystical Care bear in the sky, just waiting around to love everybody!"
Where's the reverence?
Some people will take a look at those previously mentioned religions and say "well, they're just following the traditions they were taught. It doesn't mean anything to them. But MY relationship (because it's not a religion) means something to me!" But what if that's not the case? Sure, there will always be people who go through the motions and don't believe in what they're doing. But there must be some who believe.
Now, I'm not advocating a return to "the old ways", or simply coming up with some strict traditions to follow for the sake of following them. But what if we approached God with the same reverence they approach either the traditions, or God Himself through the traditions? What if we stopped kidding ourselves by saying "when the Bible says to fear God, it actually means to respect" and admit that we serve the One who created the entire universe - just because He could. He gave us free will - just because He could. The only reason we're breathing right now is because He feels like letting us breathe. Does this sound like a giant Care bear to you?
The book of Hosea beautifully illustrates the contrast in God's love for us. He loves us and pursues us as a husband does his wife - even to the point of paying for her ransom when she has sold herself into slavery. It is a tender, yet powerful love. He longs to have her call him "my husband" instead of "my master". Yet He still says that when the Israelites return to Him, they will do so with trembling. Just because God was willing to send His Son to die because of His great love for us, doesn't mean we shouldn't approach Him with fear and reverence.
When I was trying to describe my experience in the Balkans, viewing the various religions of Islam, Catholicism, Orthodoxy and Evangelical-Protestantism, I just couldn't find the right word to set them apart from the Church in America. A lady at my church helped me out. "Was there a feeling of reverence?" she asked.
Reverence.
I think we've gone way too far in the wrong direction. We've latched on to the fact that Jesus was God made man, and that He is Love. God is Love. And we've created for ourselves a "Jesus is my boyfriend" religion. When He clearly is not. Or as my Bib Lit professor put it "The Bible says that God is Love. This DOES NOT mean that God is some giant mystical Care bear in the sky, just waiting around to love everybody!"
Where's the reverence?
Some people will take a look at those previously mentioned religions and say "well, they're just following the traditions they were taught. It doesn't mean anything to them. But MY relationship (because it's not a religion) means something to me!" But what if that's not the case? Sure, there will always be people who go through the motions and don't believe in what they're doing. But there must be some who believe.
Now, I'm not advocating a return to "the old ways", or simply coming up with some strict traditions to follow for the sake of following them. But what if we approached God with the same reverence they approach either the traditions, or God Himself through the traditions? What if we stopped kidding ourselves by saying "when the Bible says to fear God, it actually means to respect" and admit that we serve the One who created the entire universe - just because He could. He gave us free will - just because He could. The only reason we're breathing right now is because He feels like letting us breathe. Does this sound like a giant Care bear to you?
The book of Hosea beautifully illustrates the contrast in God's love for us. He loves us and pursues us as a husband does his wife - even to the point of paying for her ransom when she has sold herself into slavery. It is a tender, yet powerful love. He longs to have her call him "my husband" instead of "my master". Yet He still says that when the Israelites return to Him, they will do so with trembling. Just because God was willing to send His Son to die because of His great love for us, doesn't mean we shouldn't approach Him with fear and reverence.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
God's Answer to Dark Valleys
Pastor Gary's Sermon today from his series on Psalm 23
God's Answer to Dark Valleys
Psalm 23:4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
James 1:2-4 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
The way of spiritual maturity is through trials. Too often we want the results of verse 4, without what verse 2 promises us.
We live in a world dominated by sin. Yet in that world we're being made into the image of Christ. We will face trials that are unique to each one of us, and they happen when we are overcome and defeated by life. These Dark Valleys can be illustrated by the poem "A Psalm From A Hotel Room" by Joseph Bayly.
I’m alone Lord
alone
a thousand miles from home.
There’s no one here who knows my name
except the clerk
and he spelled it wrong
no one to eat dinner with
laugh at my jokes
listen to my gripes
be happy with me about what happened today
and say that’s great.
No one cares.
There’s just this lousy bed
and slush in the street outside
between the buildings.
I feel sorry for myself
and I’ve plenty of reason
to. Maybe I ought to say
I’m on top of it
praise the Lord
things are great
but they’re not.
Tonight
it’s all
gray slush
In the midst of Dark Valleys, remember...
1. Valleys are inevitable
Our Lord even promises that "in this world you will have trouble". Sometimes these valleys pile up upon one another. The prophet Jeremiah mourned that "disaster follows disaster" (4:20). (Katie's personal note: I once heard a speaker say "We've signed up to follow the religion of a guy who ended up having the crowds turn on him and crucify him. We shouldn't be expecting easy")
2. Valleys are unpredictable
Valleys always seem to happen at the wrong time. But think about it this way - is there ever a right time to have a flat tire?
3. Valleys are impartial
No one gets a free pass through life. Whether you are good or bad, Christian or not, bad things will happen. No one is isolated. In Matthew 5 Jesus says that rain falls on both the just and the unjust. They too often we only want the sunny days and not the ones that come with rain. We expect only good times - why else when something happens is our knee-jerk reaction to say "why me?" Do you really think you are exempt from the pain that everyone else has to face? Instead we should be saying "why not me?".
4. Valleys are temporary
1 Peter 1:6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.
David says that he walks through the valley. It is not a permanent thing. One day we will end up in heaven. The pain can be productive if it causes us to give God our attention.
5. Valleys are intentional
1 Peter 1:7 These have come so that your faith - of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire - may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
God has a reason behind the trials that we face. Faith isn't built on the mountaintop. The trials drive us to our knees. Even Jesus faced trials. God is just, and in addition to that, He can and will use evil that is done to us to make something good.
In the midst of Dark Valleys, respond by...
1. Refusing to be discouraged
We are to walk through the valley of the shadow of death. It does not say run. To walk through is to calmly make steps. We do not need to be afraid. To be afraid, or to not be afraid, that's a choice that we make. The key to that choice is the companion that walks with you through the valleys of life.
2. Remembering that God is with you
It is at this point in the psalm when the tone switches. Instead of referring to God in the third person, David now speaks of Him using the 2nd person - "you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me". The trials bring us much closer to God than we were before they hit. We need to remember to focus on God's power, not our problem. In Isaiah 43:2 He promises that "When you pass through the water, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze." We all remember the story of Peter trying to walk on the water (Matt 14). It's when he starts to focus on something other than Jesus that he becomes afraid and starts to sink.
Colossians 1:11 ..being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience...
Psalm 34:18 The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
3. Relying upon God's protection and guidance
The image used in this passage is of a rod and staff of a shepherd. The rod is used to defend us (the sheep), His protection is active and vigilant. The staff is used to give guidance and comfort.
Psalm 34:19 A righteous man may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all
John 16:33 - I (Jesus) have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.
God's answer to Dark Valleys in your life is Him!
God's Answer to Dark Valleys
Psalm 23:4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
James 1:2-4 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
The way of spiritual maturity is through trials. Too often we want the results of verse 4, without what verse 2 promises us.
We live in a world dominated by sin. Yet in that world we're being made into the image of Christ. We will face trials that are unique to each one of us, and they happen when we are overcome and defeated by life. These Dark Valleys can be illustrated by the poem "A Psalm From A Hotel Room" by Joseph Bayly.
I’m alone Lord
alone
a thousand miles from home.
There’s no one here who knows my name
except the clerk
and he spelled it wrong
no one to eat dinner with
laugh at my jokes
listen to my gripes
be happy with me about what happened today
and say that’s great.
No one cares.
There’s just this lousy bed
and slush in the street outside
between the buildings.
I feel sorry for myself
and I’ve plenty of reason
to. Maybe I ought to say
I’m on top of it
praise the Lord
things are great
but they’re not.
Tonight
it’s all
gray slush
In the midst of Dark Valleys, remember...
1. Valleys are inevitable
Our Lord even promises that "in this world you will have trouble". Sometimes these valleys pile up upon one another. The prophet Jeremiah mourned that "disaster follows disaster" (4:20). (Katie's personal note: I once heard a speaker say "We've signed up to follow the religion of a guy who ended up having the crowds turn on him and crucify him. We shouldn't be expecting easy")
2. Valleys are unpredictable
Valleys always seem to happen at the wrong time. But think about it this way - is there ever a right time to have a flat tire?
3. Valleys are impartial
No one gets a free pass through life. Whether you are good or bad, Christian or not, bad things will happen. No one is isolated. In Matthew 5 Jesus says that rain falls on both the just and the unjust. They too often we only want the sunny days and not the ones that come with rain. We expect only good times - why else when something happens is our knee-jerk reaction to say "why me?" Do you really think you are exempt from the pain that everyone else has to face? Instead we should be saying "why not me?".
4. Valleys are temporary
1 Peter 1:6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.
David says that he walks through the valley. It is not a permanent thing. One day we will end up in heaven. The pain can be productive if it causes us to give God our attention.
5. Valleys are intentional
1 Peter 1:7 These have come so that your faith - of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire - may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
God has a reason behind the trials that we face. Faith isn't built on the mountaintop. The trials drive us to our knees. Even Jesus faced trials. God is just, and in addition to that, He can and will use evil that is done to us to make something good.
In the midst of Dark Valleys, respond by...
1. Refusing to be discouraged
We are to walk through the valley of the shadow of death. It does not say run. To walk through is to calmly make steps. We do not need to be afraid. To be afraid, or to not be afraid, that's a choice that we make. The key to that choice is the companion that walks with you through the valleys of life.
2. Remembering that God is with you
It is at this point in the psalm when the tone switches. Instead of referring to God in the third person, David now speaks of Him using the 2nd person - "you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me". The trials bring us much closer to God than we were before they hit. We need to remember to focus on God's power, not our problem. In Isaiah 43:2 He promises that "When you pass through the water, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze." We all remember the story of Peter trying to walk on the water (Matt 14). It's when he starts to focus on something other than Jesus that he becomes afraid and starts to sink.
Colossians 1:11 ..being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience...
Psalm 34:18 The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
3. Relying upon God's protection and guidance
The image used in this passage is of a rod and staff of a shepherd. The rod is used to defend us (the sheep), His protection is active and vigilant. The staff is used to give guidance and comfort.
Psalm 34:19 A righteous man may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all
John 16:33 - I (Jesus) have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.
God's answer to Dark Valleys in your life is Him!
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
More Europe News - Places I've Eaten
Places I've Eaten:
-Crackers at the top of the Eiffel Tower
-Dinner at the base of the Statue of Liberty
-Crepes outside of Notre Dame
-Swiss chocolate in a park outside of a castle in Switzerland
-Picnic lunch on castle grounds in Switzerland
-Belgian waffles in a cafe in Brussels
-Lasagna in Venice
-Pickled Herring in Haarlem, Netherlands
-Sandwich outside of St. Chapele on a bench next to the road
-Multiple meals in train stations
-Breakfast of bread, nutella, and jam on a bed in "Cheap Beds Hotel"
-Lunch as at memorial on D-day across from American soldiers
-Crackers on a train
-Picnic lunch inside the Louvre
-Cookie at the top of the Reichstag
-Frankfurter in Frankfurt!
-Black Forest ice Cream Sundae in Nurnberg
-Hot chocolate in a coffee shop in a Cathedral in Haarlem
-Crackers at the top of the Eiffel Tower
-Dinner at the base of the Statue of Liberty
-Crepes outside of Notre Dame
-Swiss chocolate in a park outside of a castle in Switzerland
-Picnic lunch on castle grounds in Switzerland
-Belgian waffles in a cafe in Brussels
-Lasagna in Venice
-Pickled Herring in Haarlem, Netherlands
-Sandwich outside of St. Chapele on a bench next to the road
-Multiple meals in train stations
-Breakfast of bread, nutella, and jam on a bed in "Cheap Beds Hotel"
-Lunch as at memorial on D-day across from American soldiers
-Crackers on a train
-Picnic lunch inside the Louvre
-Cookie at the top of the Reichstag
-Frankfurter in Frankfurt!
-Black Forest ice Cream Sundae in Nurnberg
-Hot chocolate in a coffee shop in a Cathedral in Haarlem
Monday, July 20, 2009
The Four Loves
This afternoon I finished my fourth CS Lewis book of the summer. As you can tell from the title of this entry, it was "The Four Loves".
I found this to be a very interesting read, and one that should almost be required. It clears up so many of the misunderstandings that can occur when recognition isn't given to the different types of love and their proper functions. My book is, once again, covered in Post-It notes, and far more than I will take the time to list (it would just be better if you read it for yourself). His discussions range from "Likings and Loves for the Sub-Human", to Affection, Friendship, Eros, Venus and Charity. Lewis takes the time to carefully define what he means by each term, and what he does not mean. He also pushes through many of the popular misconceptions surrounding the types of love (not surprising, the same misconceptions are around even after almost 50 years). And true to form, Lewis draws in examples of the ancients which is something I particularly enjoy. But I think the most important part is his final section on Charity, relating the natural loves to Love Himself. In it, Lewis cautions the reader against taking the Augustinian approach and deciding that the risks of pain are not worth love. "The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell". Lewis also suggests "If I am sure of anything I am sure that His teaching was never meant to confirm my congenital preference for safe investments and limited liabilities. I doubt whether there is anything in me that pleases Him less." In a world where we too easily decide to run away from the pain in our lives, especially the pain of a broken heart, this is advice well-heeded.
While I continue to work through "Miracles", the next book by Lewis I will be starting is "Surprised by Joy".
I found this to be a very interesting read, and one that should almost be required. It clears up so many of the misunderstandings that can occur when recognition isn't given to the different types of love and their proper functions. My book is, once again, covered in Post-It notes, and far more than I will take the time to list (it would just be better if you read it for yourself). His discussions range from "Likings and Loves for the Sub-Human", to Affection, Friendship, Eros, Venus and Charity. Lewis takes the time to carefully define what he means by each term, and what he does not mean. He also pushes through many of the popular misconceptions surrounding the types of love (not surprising, the same misconceptions are around even after almost 50 years). And true to form, Lewis draws in examples of the ancients which is something I particularly enjoy. But I think the most important part is his final section on Charity, relating the natural loves to Love Himself. In it, Lewis cautions the reader against taking the Augustinian approach and deciding that the risks of pain are not worth love. "The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell". Lewis also suggests "If I am sure of anything I am sure that His teaching was never meant to confirm my congenital preference for safe investments and limited liabilities. I doubt whether there is anything in me that pleases Him less." In a world where we too easily decide to run away from the pain in our lives, especially the pain of a broken heart, this is advice well-heeded.
While I continue to work through "Miracles", the next book by Lewis I will be starting is "Surprised by Joy".
Friday, July 17, 2009
Suffering
For whatever reason, the issue of suffering has been on my mind a lot lately. Actually, it seems to be a reoccurring topic in my life during this whole summer. I started out the summer reading CS Lewis' work "The Problem of Pain". Since then, I've watched so many of those dear to me go through trials and tribulations. Or I've heard about people that I hardly know experience pain and suffering, and that would still pain me as much. When I would sit back and survey the whole situation, it was staggering (and it still is). And this got me wondering that very typical question - why? Maybe not so much as why God allows it to happen, or why it happens to good people, but why it all seems to happen at once. These people have enough battles to fight - why are there more?
And I'm forced to sit, minutes away or miles away, and simply watch and pray. I wish I was so much closer and that there was more than I could do. Of course, I realize that it's all up to God and I try my best to trust him, my hugs and words of encouragement surely couldn't ruin His grand scheme.
I also begin to take survey of my own life. I've been through all sorts of experiences, some wonderful, some painful. Is this supposed to be the eye of the tornado? Since my life isn't crashing in, am I just waiting for something to happen? Should I be bracing myself for another disaster? If things are so awful for those I know, things cannot stay safe for me very long.
But then the words of CS Lewis came to mind. (And if you read my last post, this quotation will be a repeat)
"The sacrifice of Christ is repeated, or re-echoed, among His followers in very varying degrees, from the cruelest martyrdom down to a self-submission of intention whose outward signs have nothing to distinguish them from the ordinary fruits of temperance and 'sweet reasonableness'."
We cannot judge others, nor ourselves, by the outward signs of suffering. The battles that Christ has given us are all different to the different individual. We are not all called to physical sufferings - for many, the internal tribulations are enough. We cannot wish for anything different.
I have also been reading through Ezra, and a verse particularly struck me out of the narration. After they rebuilt the temple of the Lord, it says that "no one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy from the sound of weeping, because the people made so much noise. And the sound was heard far away" (Ezra 3:13). That got me thinking. The reason the noise was heard so far away was because there was both shouting and weeping. Both joy and sorrow. Perhaps that is how the body of Christ is to function - the message will get out louder, not when everyone is suffering, or when everyone is prospering, but when there is a balanced mix. And if that is true for the body, than it is true for our own lives.
And I'm forced to sit, minutes away or miles away, and simply watch and pray. I wish I was so much closer and that there was more than I could do. Of course, I realize that it's all up to God and I try my best to trust him, my hugs and words of encouragement surely couldn't ruin His grand scheme.
I also begin to take survey of my own life. I've been through all sorts of experiences, some wonderful, some painful. Is this supposed to be the eye of the tornado? Since my life isn't crashing in, am I just waiting for something to happen? Should I be bracing myself for another disaster? If things are so awful for those I know, things cannot stay safe for me very long.
But then the words of CS Lewis came to mind. (And if you read my last post, this quotation will be a repeat)
"The sacrifice of Christ is repeated, or re-echoed, among His followers in very varying degrees, from the cruelest martyrdom down to a self-submission of intention whose outward signs have nothing to distinguish them from the ordinary fruits of temperance and 'sweet reasonableness'."
We cannot judge others, nor ourselves, by the outward signs of suffering. The battles that Christ has given us are all different to the different individual. We are not all called to physical sufferings - for many, the internal tribulations are enough. We cannot wish for anything different.
I have also been reading through Ezra, and a verse particularly struck me out of the narration. After they rebuilt the temple of the Lord, it says that "no one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy from the sound of weeping, because the people made so much noise. And the sound was heard far away" (Ezra 3:13). That got me thinking. The reason the noise was heard so far away was because there was both shouting and weeping. Both joy and sorrow. Perhaps that is how the body of Christ is to function - the message will get out louder, not when everyone is suffering, or when everyone is prospering, but when there is a balanced mix. And if that is true for the body, than it is true for our own lives.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
A Summer with Lewis
This summer I've made it my goal to read through as many of the works of CS Lewis as I can. A rather giant task since I always make myself so busy that I forget to take time to read. Which is rather funny, since it is one of my most favorite activities. Today I finished the third book of the summer, and I must admit, I'm rather disappointed that it's taken me this long to get this far.
The first book that I read was "The Problem of Pain". When I first started, it was my second attempt at reading it. I had tried last summer, right before heading off to college, and I made very little progress. When I started up again, Lewis did have me a little lost at first. That might be because I was tired and sitting on a swing in the sun when reading it. But when I jumped back in a few days later, I completely loved it. It is so interesting to see the full development of theological points that he presents in his Narnia series. So many things make so much more sense by his assertion that we notice pain more acutely because we know the way that things ought to have been. "In a sense, it creates, rather than solves, the problem of pain, for pain would be no problem unless, side by side with our daily experience of this painful world, we had received what we think a good assurance that ultimate reality is righteous and loving". Another section that I truly loved (and could not put down) is his final chapter on heaven. I can't even describe how wonderful it is. If you haven't read his full work, it would be worth it to just read that final chapter.
The next book I read was "The Great Divorce". It was a quick, but very enjoyable read. It was a nice contrast from "The Problem of Pain". This was presented in the form of a dream, that was such an interesting point to view the issues of heaven and hell. As it would be expected from Lewis, it is brilliantly written, and just a phenomenal read overall. I'm not sure if I fully agree with all of his views on heaven and hell, but I don't know enough on the subject to properly judge that.
Today I started and finished "The Abolition of Man". it was originally given as a series of lectures "Reflections on Education with Special Reference to the Teaching of English in the Upper Forms of Schools". Though these lectures were given in 1944, they are very relevant to the issues we face today, and not just in the educational system, but in our culture as a whole. It is a rather short read, and I would encourage everyone to read it. He examines the current philosophy of education in comparison to the past, and if this philosophy is taken to its greatest extent, where that will lead humanity. If I didn't know better, I would have thought he was critiquing the current system in America.
The next 2 books I'm planning on reading are "Miracles" and "The Four Loves". I've already been working on "Miracles" and it is a rather dense read in comparison to many of his other works. So while I slowly tackle that, I'm going to pick up a copy of "The Four Loves".
When I read books, unless it is for school, I hate to write in them. Instead, I mark sections with post it notes. My "Complete C.S. Lewis" book has so many sticking out of it, it's almost hilarious. I'd like to share a few of the marked sections from the previously mentioned books.
The Problem of Pain
The Son of God suffered unto the death, not that men might not suffer, but that their sufferings might be like His. - George MacDonald, Unspoken Sermons, First Series
If the universe is so bad, or even half so bad, how on earth did human beings ever come to attribute it to the activity of a wise and good Creator? Men are fools, perhaps; but hardly so foolish as that.
All men alike stand condemned, not by alien codes of ethics, but by their own, and all men therefore are conscious of guilt.
His Omnipotence means power to do all that is intrinsically possible, not to do the intrinsically impossible. You may attribute miracles to Him, but not nonsense. This is no limit to His power...It is no more possible for God than for the weakest of His creatures to carry out both of two mutually exclusive alternatives; not because His power meets an obstacles, but because nonsense remains nonsense even when we talk it about God.
When Christianity says that God loves man, it means that God loves man: not that He has some 'disinterested', because really indifferent, concern for our welfare, but that, in awful and surprising truth, we are the object of His love. You asked for a loving God: you have one. The great spirit you so lightly invoked, the 'lord of terrible aspect', is present: not a senile benevolence that drowsily wishes you to be happy in your own way, not the cold philanthropy of a conscientious magistrate, nor the care of a host who feels responsible for the comfort of his guests, but the consuming fire Himself, the Love that made the worlds, persistent as the artist's love for his work and despotic as a man's love for a dog, provident and venerable as a father's love for a child, jealous, inexorable, exacting as love between the sexes. How this should be, I do not know: it passes reason to explain why any creatures, not to say creatures such as we, should have a value so prodigious in their Creator's eyes.
The problem of reconciling human suffering with the existence of a God who loves, is only insoluble so long as we attach a trivial meaning to the word 'love', and look on things as if man were the centre of them. Man is not the centre. God does not exist for the sake of man. Man does not exist for his own sake. 'Thou has created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.' We were made no pt primarily that we may love God (though we were made for that too) but that God may love us, that we may become objects in which the Divine love may rest 'well pleased'.
Human love, as Plato teaches us, is the child of Poverty - of a want or lack; it is caused by a real or supposed good in its beloved which the lover needs and desires. But God's love, far from being caused by goodness in the object, causes all the goodness which the object has, loving it first into existence and then it no real, though derivative, lovability.
If He requires us, the requirement is of His own choosing. if the immutable heart can be grieved by the puppets of its own making, it is Divine Omnipotence, no other, that has so subject it, freely, and in a humility that passes understanding. If the world exists not chiefly that we may love God but that God may love us, yet that very fact, on a deeper level, is so for our sakes. If He who in Himself can lack nothing chooses to need us, it is because we need to be needed.
'You must be strong with my strength and blessed with my blessedness, for I have no other to give you'. That is the conclusion of the whole matter. God gives what He has, not what He has not: He gives the happiness that there is, not the happiness that is not. To be God - to be like God and to share His goodness in creaturely repose - to be miserable - these are the only three alternatives. If we will not learn to eat the only food that the universe grows - the only food that any possible universe ever can grow - then we must starve eternally.
If you will here stop and ask yourselves why you are not as pious as the primitive Christians were, your own heart will tell you, that is it neither through ignorance nor inability, but purely because you never thoroughly intended it.'
I think we all sin by needlessly disobeying the apostolic injunction to 'rejoice' as much as by anything else.
As St Augustine says somewhere, 'God wants to give us something, but cannot, because our hands are full - there's nowhere for Him to put it'.
If God were proud He would hardly have us on such terms: but He is not proud, He stoops to conquer, He will have us even though we have shown that we prefer everything else to Him, and come to Him because there is 'nothing better' now to be had.
Human will becomes truly creative and truly our own when it is wholly God's, and this is one of the many senses in which he that loses his soul shall find it.
The sacrifice of Christ is repeated, or re-echoed, among His followers in very varying degrees, from the cruelest martyrdom down to a self-submission of intention whose outward signs have nothing to distinguish them from the ordinary fruits of temperance and 'sweet reasonableness'.
Again, we are afraid that heaven is a bribe, and that if we make it our goal we shall no longer be disinterested.
There have been times when I think we do not desire heaven; but more often I find myself wondering whether, in our heart of hearts, we have ever desired anything else.
Are not all lifelong friendships born at the moment when at last you meet another human being who has some inkling (but faint and uncertain even in the best) of that something which you were born desiring, and which, beneath the flux of other desires and in all the momentary silences between the louder passions, night and day, year by year, from childhood to old age, you are looking for, watching for. Listening for? You have never had it. All the things that have ever deeply possessed your soul have been but hints of it - tantalizing glimpses, promises never quite fulfilled, echoes that died away just as they caught your ear. But if it should really become manifest - if there ever came an echo that did not die away but swelled into the sound itself - you would know it. Beyond all possibility of doubt you would say 'Here at last is the thing I was made for'.
The thing you long for summons you away from the self. Even the desire for the thing lives only if you abandon it.
All pains and pleasures we have known on earth are early initiations in the movements of that dance: but the dance itself is strictly incomparable with the sufferings of this present time. As we draw nearer to it uncreated rhythm, pain and pleasure sink almost out of sight. There is joy in the dance, but it foes not exist for the sake of joy. It does not even exist for the sake of food, or of love. It is Love Himself, and Good Himself, and therefore happy. It does not exist for us, but we for it.
(Note: This is a work of fiction, and in it Lewis presents many views with which he doesn't agree. These quotes are taken out of context and should not necessarily be used to represent his entire views)
No, there is no escape. There is no heaven with a little of hell in it - no plan to retain this or that of the devil in our hearts or our pockets. Out Satan must go, every hair and feather. - George MacDonald
It's scarcity that enables a society to exist.
'Will you come with me to the mountains? It will hurt at first, until your feet are hardened. Reality is harsh to the feet of shadows. But will you come?'
'But Heaven is not a state of mind. Heaven is reality itself. All this is fully real is Heavenly. For all that can be shaken will be shaken and only the unshakable remains.'
'Everyone who wishes it does. Never fear. There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, "Thy will be done." and those to whom god says, in the end, "Thy will be done." All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. To those who knock it is opened.'
'Ink and catgut and paint were necessary down there, but they are also dangerous stimulants. Every poet and musician and artist, but for Grace, is drawn away from love of the thing he tells, to love of the telling till, down in Deep Hell, they cannot be interested in God at all but only in what they say about Him. For it doesn't stop at being interested in paint, you know. They sink lower - become interested in their own personalities and then in nothing but their own reputations.'
'You cannot love a fellow-creature fully till you love God'
'That's what we all find when we reach this country. We've all been wrong! That's the great joke. There's no need to go on pretending one was right! After that we begin living.'
'But someone must say in general what's been unsaid among you this many a year: that love, as mortals understand the word, isn't enough. Every natural love will rise again and live forever in this country: but none will rise again until it has been buried.'
'I doubt if he knew clearly what he meant. but you and I must be clear. There is but one good; that is God. Everything else is good when it looks to Him and bad when it turns from Him. And the higher and mightier it is in the natural order, the more demoniac it will be if it rebels. It's not out of bad mice or bad fleas you make demons, but out of bad archangels. That false religion of lust is baser than the false religion of mother-love or patriotism or art: but lust is less likely to be made into a religion.'
'The Happy Trinity is her home: nothing can trouble her joy.
She is the bird that evades every net: the wild deer that leaps every pitfall.
Like the mother bird to its chickens or a shield to the arm'd knight: so is the Lord to her mind, in His unchanging lucidity.
Bogies will not scare her in the dark: bullets will not frighten her in the day.
Falsehoods tricked out as truths assail her in vain: she sees through the lie as if it were glass.
The invisible germ will not harm her: nor yet the glittering sun-stroke.
A thousand fail to solve the problem, ten thousand choose the wrong turning: but she passes safely through.
He details immortals gods to attend her: upon every road where she must travel.
They take her hand at hard places: she will not stub her toes in the dark.
She may walk among Lions and rattlesnakes: among dinosaurs and nurseries of lionets.
He fills her brim-full with immensity of life: he leads her to see the world's desire.'
The Abolition of Man
The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles but to irrigate deserts.
'Can you be righteous', asks Traherne, 'unless you be just in rendering to things their due esteem? All things were made to be yours and you were made to prize them according to their value.'
No emotion is, in itself, a judgement; in that sense all emotions and sentiments are alogical. But they can be reasonable or unreasonable as they conform to Reason or fail to conform. The heart never takes the place of the head: but it can, and should, obey it.
In a word, the old was a kind of propagation - men transmitting manhood to men; the new is merely propaganda.
And all the time - such is the tragi-comedy of our situation - we continue to clamour for those very qualities we are rendering impossible. You can hardly open a periodical without coming across the statement that what our civilization needs is more 'drive, or dynamism, or self-sacrifice, or 'creativity'. In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virture and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.
Telling us to obery Instinct is like telling us to obey 'pe0ople'. People say different things:so do instincts. Our instincts are at war.
What is absurd is to claim that your care for posterity finds its justification in instinct and then flout at every turn the only instinct on which it could be supposed to rest, tearing the child almost from the breast to creche and kindergarten in the interests of progress and the coming race.
The rebellion of new ideologies against the Tao is a rebellion of the branches against the tree: if the rebels could succeed they would find that they had destroyed themselves.
And as regards contraceptives, there is a paradoxical, negative sense in which all possible future generations are the patients or subjects of a power wielded by those already alive. By contraception simply, they are denied existence; by contraception used as a mean of selective breeding, they are, without their concurring voice, made to be what one generation, for its own reasons, may choose to prefer. From this point of view, what we call Man's power over Nature turns out to be a power exercised by some men over other men with Nature as its instrument.
I am not yet considering whether the total result of such ambivalent victories is a good thing or a bad. I am only making clear what Man's conquest of Nature really means and especially that final stage in the conquest, which, perhaps, is not far off. The final stage is come when Man by eugenics, by pre-natal conditioning, and by an education and propaganda based on a perfect applied psychology, has obtained full control over himself. Human nature will be the last part of Nature to surrender to man. The battle will then be won. We shall have 'taken the thread of life out of the hand of Clotho' and be henceforth free to make our species whatever we wish it to be. The battle will indeed be won. But who, precisely, will have won it?
It is not that they are bad men. They are not men at all. Stepping outside the Tao, they have stepped into the void. Nor are their subject necessarily unhappy men. They are not men at all: they are artefacts. Man's final conquest has proved to be the abolition of Man.
Only the Tao provides a common human law of action which can over-arch rulers and ruled alike. A dogmatic belief in objective value is necessary to the very idea of a rule which is not tyranny or an obedience which is not slavery.
The first book that I read was "The Problem of Pain". When I first started, it was my second attempt at reading it. I had tried last summer, right before heading off to college, and I made very little progress. When I started up again, Lewis did have me a little lost at first. That might be because I was tired and sitting on a swing in the sun when reading it. But when I jumped back in a few days later, I completely loved it. It is so interesting to see the full development of theological points that he presents in his Narnia series. So many things make so much more sense by his assertion that we notice pain more acutely because we know the way that things ought to have been. "In a sense, it creates, rather than solves, the problem of pain, for pain would be no problem unless, side by side with our daily experience of this painful world, we had received what we think a good assurance that ultimate reality is righteous and loving". Another section that I truly loved (and could not put down) is his final chapter on heaven. I can't even describe how wonderful it is. If you haven't read his full work, it would be worth it to just read that final chapter.
The next book I read was "The Great Divorce". It was a quick, but very enjoyable read. It was a nice contrast from "The Problem of Pain". This was presented in the form of a dream, that was such an interesting point to view the issues of heaven and hell. As it would be expected from Lewis, it is brilliantly written, and just a phenomenal read overall. I'm not sure if I fully agree with all of his views on heaven and hell, but I don't know enough on the subject to properly judge that.
Today I started and finished "The Abolition of Man". it was originally given as a series of lectures "Reflections on Education with Special Reference to the Teaching of English in the Upper Forms of Schools". Though these lectures were given in 1944, they are very relevant to the issues we face today, and not just in the educational system, but in our culture as a whole. It is a rather short read, and I would encourage everyone to read it. He examines the current philosophy of education in comparison to the past, and if this philosophy is taken to its greatest extent, where that will lead humanity. If I didn't know better, I would have thought he was critiquing the current system in America.
The next 2 books I'm planning on reading are "Miracles" and "The Four Loves". I've already been working on "Miracles" and it is a rather dense read in comparison to many of his other works. So while I slowly tackle that, I'm going to pick up a copy of "The Four Loves".
When I read books, unless it is for school, I hate to write in them. Instead, I mark sections with post it notes. My "Complete C.S. Lewis" book has so many sticking out of it, it's almost hilarious. I'd like to share a few of the marked sections from the previously mentioned books.
The Problem of Pain
The Son of God suffered unto the death, not that men might not suffer, but that their sufferings might be like His. - George MacDonald, Unspoken Sermons, First Series
If the universe is so bad, or even half so bad, how on earth did human beings ever come to attribute it to the activity of a wise and good Creator? Men are fools, perhaps; but hardly so foolish as that.
All men alike stand condemned, not by alien codes of ethics, but by their own, and all men therefore are conscious of guilt.
His Omnipotence means power to do all that is intrinsically possible, not to do the intrinsically impossible. You may attribute miracles to Him, but not nonsense. This is no limit to His power...It is no more possible for God than for the weakest of His creatures to carry out both of two mutually exclusive alternatives; not because His power meets an obstacles, but because nonsense remains nonsense even when we talk it about God.
When Christianity says that God loves man, it means that God loves man: not that He has some 'disinterested', because really indifferent, concern for our welfare, but that, in awful and surprising truth, we are the object of His love. You asked for a loving God: you have one. The great spirit you so lightly invoked, the 'lord of terrible aspect', is present: not a senile benevolence that drowsily wishes you to be happy in your own way, not the cold philanthropy of a conscientious magistrate, nor the care of a host who feels responsible for the comfort of his guests, but the consuming fire Himself, the Love that made the worlds, persistent as the artist's love for his work and despotic as a man's love for a dog, provident and venerable as a father's love for a child, jealous, inexorable, exacting as love between the sexes. How this should be, I do not know: it passes reason to explain why any creatures, not to say creatures such as we, should have a value so prodigious in their Creator's eyes.
The problem of reconciling human suffering with the existence of a God who loves, is only insoluble so long as we attach a trivial meaning to the word 'love', and look on things as if man were the centre of them. Man is not the centre. God does not exist for the sake of man. Man does not exist for his own sake. 'Thou has created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.' We were made no pt primarily that we may love God (though we were made for that too) but that God may love us, that we may become objects in which the Divine love may rest 'well pleased'.
Human love, as Plato teaches us, is the child of Poverty - of a want or lack; it is caused by a real or supposed good in its beloved which the lover needs and desires. But God's love, far from being caused by goodness in the object, causes all the goodness which the object has, loving it first into existence and then it no real, though derivative, lovability.
If He requires us, the requirement is of His own choosing. if the immutable heart can be grieved by the puppets of its own making, it is Divine Omnipotence, no other, that has so subject it, freely, and in a humility that passes understanding. If the world exists not chiefly that we may love God but that God may love us, yet that very fact, on a deeper level, is so for our sakes. If He who in Himself can lack nothing chooses to need us, it is because we need to be needed.
'You must be strong with my strength and blessed with my blessedness, for I have no other to give you'. That is the conclusion of the whole matter. God gives what He has, not what He has not: He gives the happiness that there is, not the happiness that is not. To be God - to be like God and to share His goodness in creaturely repose - to be miserable - these are the only three alternatives. If we will not learn to eat the only food that the universe grows - the only food that any possible universe ever can grow - then we must starve eternally.
If you will here stop and ask yourselves why you are not as pious as the primitive Christians were, your own heart will tell you, that is it neither through ignorance nor inability, but purely because you never thoroughly intended it.'
I think we all sin by needlessly disobeying the apostolic injunction to 'rejoice' as much as by anything else.
As St Augustine says somewhere, 'God wants to give us something, but cannot, because our hands are full - there's nowhere for Him to put it'.
If God were proud He would hardly have us on such terms: but He is not proud, He stoops to conquer, He will have us even though we have shown that we prefer everything else to Him, and come to Him because there is 'nothing better' now to be had.
Human will becomes truly creative and truly our own when it is wholly God's, and this is one of the many senses in which he that loses his soul shall find it.
The sacrifice of Christ is repeated, or re-echoed, among His followers in very varying degrees, from the cruelest martyrdom down to a self-submission of intention whose outward signs have nothing to distinguish them from the ordinary fruits of temperance and 'sweet reasonableness'.
Again, we are afraid that heaven is a bribe, and that if we make it our goal we shall no longer be disinterested.
There have been times when I think we do not desire heaven; but more often I find myself wondering whether, in our heart of hearts, we have ever desired anything else.
Are not all lifelong friendships born at the moment when at last you meet another human being who has some inkling (but faint and uncertain even in the best) of that something which you were born desiring, and which, beneath the flux of other desires and in all the momentary silences between the louder passions, night and day, year by year, from childhood to old age, you are looking for, watching for. Listening for? You have never had it. All the things that have ever deeply possessed your soul have been but hints of it - tantalizing glimpses, promises never quite fulfilled, echoes that died away just as they caught your ear. But if it should really become manifest - if there ever came an echo that did not die away but swelled into the sound itself - you would know it. Beyond all possibility of doubt you would say 'Here at last is the thing I was made for'.
The thing you long for summons you away from the self. Even the desire for the thing lives only if you abandon it.
All pains and pleasures we have known on earth are early initiations in the movements of that dance: but the dance itself is strictly incomparable with the sufferings of this present time. As we draw nearer to it uncreated rhythm, pain and pleasure sink almost out of sight. There is joy in the dance, but it foes not exist for the sake of joy. It does not even exist for the sake of food, or of love. It is Love Himself, and Good Himself, and therefore happy. It does not exist for us, but we for it.
(Note: This is a work of fiction, and in it Lewis presents many views with which he doesn't agree. These quotes are taken out of context and should not necessarily be used to represent his entire views)
No, there is no escape. There is no heaven with a little of hell in it - no plan to retain this or that of the devil in our hearts or our pockets. Out Satan must go, every hair and feather. - George MacDonald
It's scarcity that enables a society to exist.
'Will you come with me to the mountains? It will hurt at first, until your feet are hardened. Reality is harsh to the feet of shadows. But will you come?'
'But Heaven is not a state of mind. Heaven is reality itself. All this is fully real is Heavenly. For all that can be shaken will be shaken and only the unshakable remains.'
'Everyone who wishes it does. Never fear. There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, "Thy will be done." and those to whom god says, in the end, "Thy will be done." All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. To those who knock it is opened.'
'Ink and catgut and paint were necessary down there, but they are also dangerous stimulants. Every poet and musician and artist, but for Grace, is drawn away from love of the thing he tells, to love of the telling till, down in Deep Hell, they cannot be interested in God at all but only in what they say about Him. For it doesn't stop at being interested in paint, you know. They sink lower - become interested in their own personalities and then in nothing but their own reputations.'
'You cannot love a fellow-creature fully till you love God'
'That's what we all find when we reach this country. We've all been wrong! That's the great joke. There's no need to go on pretending one was right! After that we begin living.'
'But someone must say in general what's been unsaid among you this many a year: that love, as mortals understand the word, isn't enough. Every natural love will rise again and live forever in this country: but none will rise again until it has been buried.'
'I doubt if he knew clearly what he meant. but you and I must be clear. There is but one good; that is God. Everything else is good when it looks to Him and bad when it turns from Him. And the higher and mightier it is in the natural order, the more demoniac it will be if it rebels. It's not out of bad mice or bad fleas you make demons, but out of bad archangels. That false religion of lust is baser than the false religion of mother-love or patriotism or art: but lust is less likely to be made into a religion.'
'The Happy Trinity is her home: nothing can trouble her joy.
She is the bird that evades every net: the wild deer that leaps every pitfall.
Like the mother bird to its chickens or a shield to the arm'd knight: so is the Lord to her mind, in His unchanging lucidity.
Bogies will not scare her in the dark: bullets will not frighten her in the day.
Falsehoods tricked out as truths assail her in vain: she sees through the lie as if it were glass.
The invisible germ will not harm her: nor yet the glittering sun-stroke.
A thousand fail to solve the problem, ten thousand choose the wrong turning: but she passes safely through.
He details immortals gods to attend her: upon every road where she must travel.
They take her hand at hard places: she will not stub her toes in the dark.
She may walk among Lions and rattlesnakes: among dinosaurs and nurseries of lionets.
He fills her brim-full with immensity of life: he leads her to see the world's desire.'
The Abolition of Man
The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles but to irrigate deserts.
'Can you be righteous', asks Traherne, 'unless you be just in rendering to things their due esteem? All things were made to be yours and you were made to prize them according to their value.'
No emotion is, in itself, a judgement; in that sense all emotions and sentiments are alogical. But they can be reasonable or unreasonable as they conform to Reason or fail to conform. The heart never takes the place of the head: but it can, and should, obey it.
In a word, the old was a kind of propagation - men transmitting manhood to men; the new is merely propaganda.
And all the time - such is the tragi-comedy of our situation - we continue to clamour for those very qualities we are rendering impossible. You can hardly open a periodical without coming across the statement that what our civilization needs is more 'drive, or dynamism, or self-sacrifice, or 'creativity'. In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virture and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.
Telling us to obery Instinct is like telling us to obey 'pe0ople'. People say different things:so do instincts. Our instincts are at war.
What is absurd is to claim that your care for posterity finds its justification in instinct and then flout at every turn the only instinct on which it could be supposed to rest, tearing the child almost from the breast to creche and kindergarten in the interests of progress and the coming race.
The rebellion of new ideologies against the Tao is a rebellion of the branches against the tree: if the rebels could succeed they would find that they had destroyed themselves.
And as regards contraceptives, there is a paradoxical, negative sense in which all possible future generations are the patients or subjects of a power wielded by those already alive. By contraception simply, they are denied existence; by contraception used as a mean of selective breeding, they are, without their concurring voice, made to be what one generation, for its own reasons, may choose to prefer. From this point of view, what we call Man's power over Nature turns out to be a power exercised by some men over other men with Nature as its instrument.
I am not yet considering whether the total result of such ambivalent victories is a good thing or a bad. I am only making clear what Man's conquest of Nature really means and especially that final stage in the conquest, which, perhaps, is not far off. The final stage is come when Man by eugenics, by pre-natal conditioning, and by an education and propaganda based on a perfect applied psychology, has obtained full control over himself. Human nature will be the last part of Nature to surrender to man. The battle will then be won. We shall have 'taken the thread of life out of the hand of Clotho' and be henceforth free to make our species whatever we wish it to be. The battle will indeed be won. But who, precisely, will have won it?
It is not that they are bad men. They are not men at all. Stepping outside the Tao, they have stepped into the void. Nor are their subject necessarily unhappy men. They are not men at all: they are artefacts. Man's final conquest has proved to be the abolition of Man.
Only the Tao provides a common human law of action which can over-arch rulers and ruled alike. A dogmatic belief in objective value is necessary to the very idea of a rule which is not tyranny or an obedience which is not slavery.
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