So, is it OK to almost use a blog as a cheap form of a journal? I mean, I'm NEVER going to handwrite in a journal, it's just not going to happen, so maybe this would be a good way of writing down thoughts and stuff. Let's just hope I don't wander into areas that are best left out of the public eye.
Speaking of which, I'm not sure I get why most people like to have such a large chunk of their lives private. I'm all about some general open information sharing between persons, and especially between friends. Like what's it to me if I tell you what we paid for our house? Seems pretty innocuous to me...
Pretty sure I'm already in trouble; Say and I have differing views on that subject!
What I was really thinking about was CS Lewis's The Weight of Glory, and his very accurate descriptions of a certain pining that we all seem to do. I can see God's point; he wants us to long for him in ways that will never be satisfied on earth, but it still leaves us in a bind. How else do you explain being sad at the end of a particularly good day? I think it's because, no matter how good everything is, it's never good enough. And of course God rides in to save the day, but really I guess he doesn't until you die. So here we are, pining away, and all the meanwhile God reserves the ultimate joys for when we leave the mortal life. Kind've a bummer, really.
So the answer of course is to Trust God, and I try to and want to, but I also feel like in some ways he's holding out on me. And no, he doesn't owe me anything, but I'll be derned if it wouldn't be nice to see him once in a while.
Ya'll think about it
5 comments:
Luke, good thoughts. My first reaction is to remember that while it oftentimes does feel that God is holding out on us, it was human beings that sinned, thus the state of affairs today. In some ways, it is amazing that we can have hints of joy and beauty (i.e. Lewis' Weight of Glory essay) at all. More thoughts later...
"So here we are, pining away, and all the meanwhile God reserves the ultimate joys for when we leave the mortal life." Yes and no. I think that Jesus was serious when he said that he came to give us life to the full, and I think he meant life here on earth now. But, you are right that we still await total eschatalogical fulfillment when Christ returns...
Eschatalogical is a little heavy for me! I agree with your reaction, especially on an intellectual level. I guess that for me, it's just that things don't always translate into everyday life for me. Of course most of that is due to maturity, but I can't help but think that God does hold out on us a little bit in order to make us less worldly. I mean, if we loved being here, we would love him less.
I like this discussion. I agree with both of you. (what movie is this from: "Stop! You're both right!)
C.S. Lewis says that "we are far too easily pleased" here on earth...."If a transtemporal, transfinite good is our real destiny, then any other good on which our desire fixes must be in some degree fallacious, must bear at best only a symbolical relation to what will truly satisfy..." and then I love how he goes on to talk about Beauty eluding us, looking past us. "The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not IN them, it only came THROUGH them...Beauty has smiled, but not to welcome us; her face was turned in our direction, but not to see us..." etc etc. I'm reading The Weight of Glory, sermon version. http://www.doxaweb.com/assets/doxa.pdf This is what I used as part of my ref for my senior project. Would love to chat more but need to get some work done. Later I'll try to gather my thoughts a little more, but thought yall might like reading some of what he wrote.
This is a great discussion! Luke and SR - yes, I think ya'll are right about the fact that we were made for eternity, and thus finite goods are never truly satisfying. But, I think that in the beginning, human beings were supposed to love being in Creation on Earth, and that it was intended to lead them to love God MORE. The problem is that now we live in fallen Creation, and so it is a whole different ball game. But, I do still think that the 'hints and guesses' left in creation (to quote T.S. Eliot) are still designed to increase our love and worship of God. In some ways, I long for redeemed Creation. I think I might be a little less platonic than Lewis and a bit more Aristotelian? His discussion of 'symbolic' seems very Platonic (i.e. forms, etc.). I think he is saying more though with using symbol instead of 'sign'. So the symbol still participates in some way in the Reality. OK, this is getting too deep for me. :)
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