C-Dubbs cribbs from C.S.

So I took some time today to read from CS Lewis' essay, "The Weight of Glory." Wow. There is so much depth and insight and wonderful truth in those few pages. I'm going to have to go back this week and reread it and reread it just to soak in all of the different thoughts that Lewis puts on out there. And that means in order to digest all the information, that I will probably be doing a lot of posting about it here on this site. But hopefully you'll find it as beneficial as I have. I just want to take it an idea at a time, though.

Desire gets a bad rap in many churches today. I understand that James warns about our sinful desires. And Jeremiah warned that the heart was deceitful above all things. I really do understand why Christians need to exercise utmost discernment and caution when they think about their desires. Many, ultimately, lead only to self-gratification. Many also lead us to sin as a result of that. But even those Christians whose hearts are set on God still find themselves pining for something. . . more. It's that thought that keeps us awake at night. It's why we get so frustrated and can't figure out why. It's desire that leads to our hope. And I think this essay addresses the importance of desire and the true desire of our souls in probably the best fashion I've ever read. In fact, most books I've read on desire quote liberally from this source (The Sacred Romance, The Journey of Desire, and Wild at Heart are all wonderful reads.)

And so I like how Lewis starts off adressing, first off, the fact that in order to follow Christ, many of us have taken the joy out of life and, therefore, removed much of the joy from the Greatest Story ever told. He says if you asked twenty people what they thought the highest human virtue was, 19 of them would say Unselfishness. But if you asked the Christians of the old age, they would have replied, Love. The idea is that we've made such a big deal about unselfishness, something with a negative connotation instead of love, which has a positive one. . .

The negative idea of Unselfishness carries with it the suggestion not primarily of securing good things for others, but of going without them ourselves, as if our abstinence and not their happiness was the important point.

One thing I see there is that isn't it actually pretty selfish to have this idea? It's redericting the attention to ourselves. But Lewis goes on. . .

The New Testament has lots to say about self-denial, but not about self-denial as an end in itself. We are told to deny ourselves and take up our crosses in order that we may follow Christ, and nearly every description of what we shall ultimately find if we do so contains an appeal to desire.

John Piper also talks a lot about that. I always think back to a kid I knew in youth group growing up, who came from a very strict family. They were so unhappy and so joyless. Looking back, I don't know how one can be a Christian without sipping at least once from the cup of joy. Yes, we are told that in this world we will have trials. We are told that we will be in the midst of conflict with a world that hates us. But consider what we gain. We gain a place in the Kingdom of the Almighty God. We are promised to be More Than Conquerors. We are heirs to God. We are adopted Children. We have eternal life! The list goes on and on. And so, although we are told to deny ourselves, Christianity isn't about just denying ourselves so that we can be without any desire or joy. Rather, that emptying of ourselves frees us up to receive infinitely more! Remember what John the Baptist said, "He must become greater, I must become less." And CS Lewis echoes this in what I feel is one of the truest and most beautiful comments I've ever read.

Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

Far too easily pleased. That's got me pegged to a tee. Why do we sin? I think part of it is because we want instant gratification. We don't want to wait on God's promises. And we're happy to have superficial, sensual happiness instead of life-changing, eternal joy. We play and fool around with things that will betray us, injure us, and ultimately pass away, instead of delving into the deep waters that God offers.

Some wonder if this is a right way to approach Christianity: what's in it for me? I don't think that it's wrong to pursue it looking for a way to sate your soul's desire. Lewis doesn't either, and that's his next point. While pursuing Christ for fame or money or notoriaty is wrong, we also have to look at it and realize that pursuing things for their logical fulfillment is just that. . . logical.

There is the reward which has no natural connection with the things you do to earn it and is quite foreign to the desires that ought to accompany thouse things. Money is not the natural reward of love; that is why we call a man mercenary if he marries a woman for the sake of her money. But marriage is the proper reward for a real lover, and he is not mercenary for desiring it. A general who fights well in order to get a peerage is mercenary; a general who fights for victory is not, victory being the proper reward of battle as marriage is the proper reward of love. The proper rewards are not simply tacked on to the activity for which they are given, but are the activity itself in consumation.

Therefore, it's not wrong to pursue Christ and expect joy, heaven, life, and more. They are things promised to us! They flow out of knowing Christ. I wish the American church would remember this and have more joy. Live more to desire the depths of Christ and really regain the joy of salvation.

There is so much more that I want to write about, and will in the coming days. I highly recommend the book The Weight of Glory. That's just one essay in it, and I look forward to delving deeper into this and spending some time with CS Lewis.

C-Dubbs