.:to Love at all is to be vunerable:.

My favorite C.S Lewis quote:

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully around with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable."

any thoughts?

The Weight of Glory

"We are far to eaisly pleased."

-C.S. Lewis-

I am always impressed by Lewis' honesty and truthfulness of his writings. It is indeed odd how we as a human race are satisfied with what we have here on this earth and have no idea what is in store for us when we leave here. The whole of Weight of Glory reminds me of 1 Corinthians 2:9,

"However, as it is written:

No eye has seen,

no ear has heard,

no mind has conceived

what God has prepared for those who love him."

Lewis talks about how we live this life for rewards, that sometimes we live life for the wrong rewards, like marrying for money or fighting a battle to get a peerage we should then fight a battle to gain victory and marry for love, these are the rewards we should be seeking.

Lewis talks about our inner desire to be in heaven one day and i think this means that we should live our lives to seek God and to seek him in his heaven. i cannot help but think of this verse from Matthew 6 verses 20 and 21,

"But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. " (NIV)

Lewis points out here that all our lives there have been people trying to convince us that "earth can be made into heaven," but the things we have on this earth cannot even compare to what we as Gods children have instore for later.

Lewis proceeds to talk about glory and how "the promise of glory is the promise, almost incredible and only possible by the work of Christ, that some of us, that any of us who really chooses shall actually survive that examination, shall find approval, shall please God."

We live our lives to please God and Lewis points out what a heavy load that is. To have devine happiness is to please God, and to be loved by Him. What immense pressure the human race is under to impress the creator of the universe. To impress a being so inventive and powerful, and almighty and to think how little we look compared to Him. That is a weight on us certainly.

I think Lewis had it perfectly right when he said weight of glory....he certainly meant it.

"For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found..."

We Have No Right To Happiness

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness"-Decleration of Independance

When i read this i cant help but imagine all of the people who missunderstand this. That they have the unalienable right to do whatever makes them happy. This could mean running around punching people in the face, cutting people down with humerous sarcasm, or hugging strangers. In a way its amusing but it is also a scary thought. just think about the situations people will create on the premise that they have a right to do whatever makes them happy.
Lewis brings this idea up in "we have no righty to happiness." He gives the example of Mr. A and Mrs. B divorcing thier spouses to be with eachother, because they had a right to be happy. This happiness, lewis explains, is sexual happiness. this thought, that we have a right to sexual happiness throws us in a downward spiral of ideas that we can and should give in to our impluses, whether they appropriate or not. Lewis states that, "Absolute obedience to your instinct for self-preservation is what we call cowardice; to your aquisitve impluse, avarice."
In a way always indulging in your impulses makes you weak. It would appear that one is not strong enough to resist ones own sexual impluses, therefore making one weak.

i agree with lewis when he says that "our sexual impluses are thus being put in a position of preposterous privilage. The sexual motive is taken to condone all sorts of behaviour which, if it had any other end in view , would be condemned as merciless, treacherous, and unjust."
This is completely true. We now justify leaving a spouce because sexually you are not satified...thats not what marriage is and it certainly is not what love is. Love isnt just being intimate with someone....that can be a product of love, but love is a struggle, ask anyone whos been married for 25 years. Its not easy and once you're in a commitment you just cant say peace out and leave. It is wildy unjust as Lewis says. If only we as a socitey could realize the difference between true hapiness in love, (the true love of a spouse and the love of God) and momentary happiness in sex and pleasure. I think our relationships would last much longer...and the divorce rates would go down....
but heres to hoping...
and praying for that matter.

-fin-

Stabs of Joy, Hope, Longing, and Shalom

i thoroughly enjoyed this chapter. Plantinga writes about "suffering" from "stabs of joy", which CS Lewis also comments on several times in his works. i found that in my own life, i too, experience these stabs of joy. i find that i am most joyful when i take photos. i have a passion for photography and taking pictures of what i find beautiful is one of the things that gives me joy. The amazing thing is, is that the beauty that i can capture with my camera is nothing compared to what God has in store for man kind later. Its like what Lewis said, "we are far too easily pleased" with what we have on this earth. like Plantinga says, "we cannot merge with the music we love. Nor can we climb inside nature." Just the same i can not merge with the photos i take.

I find it so insane and mind blowing how we as humans long for oneness with others and even when we achive that oneness withothers through marriage and intimacy, it still doenst compare to the oneness we long to have with God. Acts of marriage and love are what we have now but we will long and hope for more, and we ge this through having our hearts rest in God's heart.

I also liked how platinga explains how hope combines imagination, faith, and desire. i just found that when reading this chapter i was really impressed by Plantigas insight on how when you long for something you need to have hope acompany that longing. then in the end what we all are really hoping and longing for is Shalom, peace. it all tied in quite nicely and i felt a small stab of joy after reading it.

the end

Bulverism

Everyone goes through that phase where they think they are never wrong. i know i did, i know my older brother did...and still does for that matter. whether its you or your brother or a politician, at some point you truely feel that you're right and everyone else is wrong. bulverism, its such a univseral thing and yet so personal we experience it in our everyday lives.
i enjoyed lewis take on bulverism. He reccognizes that using our reason is much more effective when trying to make a point than simply saying, "nope, you're wrong, im right...end of story."
Lewis' high regard for inteligent thought out agurments and reason is incouraging also. its easy to slip into automaticlly assuming ones apponent is wrong from the start but it is a challenge to be open to listening to them and then challenging them with your own intelligence.

i also liked lewis' point when he wrote,
"Until Bulverism is crushed, reason can play no effective part in human affairs. Each side snatches it early as a weapon against the other; but between the two reason itself is discredited. And why should reason not be discredited? It would be easy, in answer, to point to the present state of the world, but the real answer is even more immediate. The forces discrediting reason, themselves depend of reasoning. You must reason even to Bulverize. You are trying to prove that all proofs are invalid. If you fail, you fail. If you succeed, then you fail even more - for the proof that all proofs are invalid must be invalid itself. "

Lewis' thoughts are always clear and well planned out.