"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 round 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.”
- C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves
I finished reading The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis yesterday for the umpteenth time. I have a used copy of the book, picked up from a dusty bookshop whose name I've long forgotten; there were scribbled notes and lines enough in the book before it came to me, and I no longer remember whose notes are mine and whose belong to the previous owner(s).
The Four Loves is my favorite C.S. Lewis book - perhaps more for sentimental reasons, as it was the first Lewis book I ever picked up and read. I know most people are introduced to him through Mere Christianity; that was the fifth or sixth book I ever read by him, and only then because one of my friends insisted on buying and giving it to me because he was so appalled at my never reading it.
I have a deep affinity for clarity, being able to clearly define emotion and relationships and what I owe to God and to the people in my life; and that is another reason I read The Four Loves again and again. The loves Lewis sets out in the book - Affection, Friendship, Eros, and Charity, along with the introductory chapter on Sub-Human Likes and Loves - help me to define how I feel towards my parents, my friends, my fellow Christians, even God. It helps me to recognize the blessings and pitfalls inherent in any "natural" love, such as Affection and Eros.
“Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, 'What! You too? I thought I was the only one."
- C.S. Lewis, "Friendship", The Four Loves
Charity is my favorite chapter, because in it is described the love between God and man - the Gift-Love of God, as He blesses us and bestows on us everything we need for life; and the Need-Love of man, in that I can fully embrace my utter dependence on God and emptiness apart from Him, as something God has put inside me. In "Charity", he describes how we as Christians have to move on past thinking we have anything of value that makes God love us; that I deserve God's love because of my intelligence, my self-sacrificing behavior, my good choices, even my humility. God does not love me because I am loveable; I have to get past that idea if I am ever to truly experience Charity. God loves me simply because He is Love Himself; He cannot do or be anything else.
"Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. "
- 1 John 4:7-12
"Nothing is inexorable but love. Love which will yield to prayer is imperfect and poor. Nor is it then the love that yields, but its alloy...For love loves unto purity. Love has ever in view the absolute loveliness of that which it beholds. Where loveliness is incomplete, and love cannot love its fill of loving, it spends itself to make more lovely, that it may love more; it strives for perfection, even that itself may be perfected - not in itself, but in the object...Therefore all that is not beautiful in the beloved, all that comes between and is not of love's kind, must be destroyed. And our God is a consuming fire."
- George MacDonald, Unspoken Sermons
Showing posts with label the Bible. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the Bible. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Secrets in the Dark
I finally finished Frederick Buechner's collection of sermons, Secrets in the Dark: A Life in Sermons. Normally I don't have to spend 2 months on one book, and if it takes me that long to read, I lose interest long before I finish it. However since it was a collection of sermons, it was more like 37 short-stories together. I really should have been writing my thoughts on Secrets the whole time I was reading it, because it's difficult to look back over 2 months' reading and really remember what struck me or stuck with me. (That's why underlining is so useful to me.)
Reading sermons that I've never heard spoken before always makes me wonder if I would grasp as much, if I listened to them first, as I do when I'm reading them - or would grasp more. Although I've never yet had the chance to listen to Buechner's preaching, his style is such that I can almost hear a warm, low, gentle voice exhorting and explaining such issues as the pain of a loved one's death, the first new breath of Christ on Resurrection Day, the importance of Communion, or the Eucharist - "The Blood of Christ, Freddy, the Body of Christ." The security, warmth and familiarity of home - our Home in Christ. He explores some issues close to heart; some sermons I thought were rather inconsequential; one, in fact, I thought unbiblical. Yet what I found most resonating in his words was his repeated theme that - Christ is the fulfillment of our desires, our hopes, our expectations, the One Way to the kingdom of God; Christ is found when we love one another, sacrifice ourselves for each other, look beyond the outer cloak of flesh and bones, and see truly the immortal soul that we can have a hand in transforming, for either good or evil.
So, a few high points/underline-worthy moments.....
...It is not objective proof of God's existence that we want but, whether we use religious language for it or not, the experience of God's presence. ("Message in the Stars")
...It means for us simply that we must be careful with our lives, for Christ's sake, beause it would seem that they are the only lives we are going to have in this puzzling and perilous world, and so they are very precious and what we do with them matters enormously. ("The Calling of Voices")
..."Remember the wonderful works that he has done," goes David's song - remember what he has done in the lives of each of us...remember those moments in our own lives when with only the dullest understanding but with the sharpest longing we have glimpsed that Christ's kind of life is the only life that matters and that all other kinds of life are riddled with death; remember those moments in our lives when Christ came to us in countless disguises through people who one way or another strengthened us, comforted us, healed us, judged us, by the power of Christ alive within them...because we remember, we have this high and holy hope: that what he has done, he will continue to do, that what he has begun in us and our world, he will in unimaginable ways bring to fullness and fruition. ("A Room Called Remember")
...Faith is the eye of the heart, and by faith we see deep down beneath the face of things. ("Faith")
...And God knows we have all had our wilderness and our temptations too - not the temptations to work evil probably, because by grace or luck we don't have what it takes for more than momentary longings in that direction, but the temptation to settle for the lesser good, which is evil enough and maybe a worse one - to settle for niceness and usefulness and busyness instead of for holiness; to settle for plausibility and eloquence instead of for truth. ("The Two Stories")
...We really can't hear what the stories of the Bible are saying until we hear them as stories about ourselves. ("The Seeing Heart")
Reading sermons that I've never heard spoken before always makes me wonder if I would grasp as much, if I listened to them first, as I do when I'm reading them - or would grasp more. Although I've never yet had the chance to listen to Buechner's preaching, his style is such that I can almost hear a warm, low, gentle voice exhorting and explaining such issues as the pain of a loved one's death, the first new breath of Christ on Resurrection Day, the importance of Communion, or the Eucharist - "The Blood of Christ, Freddy, the Body of Christ." The security, warmth and familiarity of home - our Home in Christ. He explores some issues close to heart; some sermons I thought were rather inconsequential; one, in fact, I thought unbiblical. Yet what I found most resonating in his words was his repeated theme that - Christ is the fulfillment of our desires, our hopes, our expectations, the One Way to the kingdom of God; Christ is found when we love one another, sacrifice ourselves for each other, look beyond the outer cloak of flesh and bones, and see truly the immortal soul that we can have a hand in transforming, for either good or evil.
So, a few high points/underline-worthy moments.....
...It is not objective proof of God's existence that we want but, whether we use religious language for it or not, the experience of God's presence. ("Message in the Stars")
...It means for us simply that we must be careful with our lives, for Christ's sake, beause it would seem that they are the only lives we are going to have in this puzzling and perilous world, and so they are very precious and what we do with them matters enormously. ("The Calling of Voices")
..."Remember the wonderful works that he has done," goes David's song - remember what he has done in the lives of each of us...remember those moments in our own lives when with only the dullest understanding but with the sharpest longing we have glimpsed that Christ's kind of life is the only life that matters and that all other kinds of life are riddled with death; remember those moments in our lives when Christ came to us in countless disguises through people who one way or another strengthened us, comforted us, healed us, judged us, by the power of Christ alive within them...because we remember, we have this high and holy hope: that what he has done, he will continue to do, that what he has begun in us and our world, he will in unimaginable ways bring to fullness and fruition. ("A Room Called Remember")
...Faith is the eye of the heart, and by faith we see deep down beneath the face of things. ("Faith")
...And God knows we have all had our wilderness and our temptations too - not the temptations to work evil probably, because by grace or luck we don't have what it takes for more than momentary longings in that direction, but the temptation to settle for the lesser good, which is evil enough and maybe a worse one - to settle for niceness and usefulness and busyness instead of for holiness; to settle for plausibility and eloquence instead of for truth. ("The Two Stories")
...We really can't hear what the stories of the Bible are saying until we hear them as stories about ourselves. ("The Seeing Heart")
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Tis so sweet......
It's 3 AM and I cannot sleep. Not yet, despite a half dose of Advil PM and a glass of go-to-sleep tea and pure exhaustedness that makes my eyelids heavy. So here is some late-night rambling about what's going on in Whitney's world.
God has really been working on me lately, trying to help me identify when I fail to "walk in the Spirit" and start thinking with my sinful nature.
"16So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.
19The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other."
- Galatians 5:16-26
Definition of walking by the Spirit: thoughts, attitudes, behaviors, habits that naturally breed and bring the following into my life: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control.
Definition of living by the sinful nature: anything that leads to/ends in immorality, etc, whatever is listed in verses 19-21.
It is amazing, when I start monitoring my thoughts and habits and patterns how dependent I am on my sinful nature. When you start asking "where is that coming from?", it's amazing that more times than not, it's coming from my sinful nature. And how often I don't do anything to combat it, I just let the thought fly and influence how I act towards people, what I think about them, what I say about them. How often my flesh has total, complete rein on my thoughts. The mind really is a battlefield.
But, this week, I have been working on letting go - and taking hold. Letting go of my right to do whatever I want with my mind; letting go of trying to plan things out according to how my flesh wants them. Taking hold of the promises of God, that he loved me enough to die for me in order to restore me to the glorious relationship he created me for. Taking hold of the righteousness he wants to clothe me in. Taking hold of the peace that he offers when I totally surrender my life to him and embrace his love.
It really is a simple, kindergarten-Christian lesson. But I also think that - it's one of those rock faces that look incredibly easy to climb, but a third of the way up, you realize it's inclining over your head and the grips are getting smaller and smaller and oh yeah, your spotter just decided to let go of the rope and get a drink or something.
But the peace - oh, tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, just to take him at his word...just to know, thus sayeth the Lord. To know that you don't have to figure everything out in your life and answer all the hard questions at this moment, because God is there, with the pen, writing out your life story, if I'd only stop trying to wrench the pen from his hand; if I'd allow him to dictate my thoughts, my actions, my attitudes. To take my mind and transform my inner woman, changing her from an ugly old withered up bitter selfish woman and make her something beautiful, vibrant, alive.
Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus.
God has really been working on me lately, trying to help me identify when I fail to "walk in the Spirit" and start thinking with my sinful nature.
"16So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.
19The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other."
- Galatians 5:16-26
Definition of walking by the Spirit: thoughts, attitudes, behaviors, habits that naturally breed and bring the following into my life: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control.
Definition of living by the sinful nature: anything that leads to/ends in immorality, etc, whatever is listed in verses 19-21.
It is amazing, when I start monitoring my thoughts and habits and patterns how dependent I am on my sinful nature. When you start asking "where is that coming from?", it's amazing that more times than not, it's coming from my sinful nature. And how often I don't do anything to combat it, I just let the thought fly and influence how I act towards people, what I think about them, what I say about them. How often my flesh has total, complete rein on my thoughts. The mind really is a battlefield.
But, this week, I have been working on letting go - and taking hold. Letting go of my right to do whatever I want with my mind; letting go of trying to plan things out according to how my flesh wants them. Taking hold of the promises of God, that he loved me enough to die for me in order to restore me to the glorious relationship he created me for. Taking hold of the righteousness he wants to clothe me in. Taking hold of the peace that he offers when I totally surrender my life to him and embrace his love.
It really is a simple, kindergarten-Christian lesson. But I also think that - it's one of those rock faces that look incredibly easy to climb, but a third of the way up, you realize it's inclining over your head and the grips are getting smaller and smaller and oh yeah, your spotter just decided to let go of the rope and get a drink or something.
But the peace - oh, tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, just to take him at his word...just to know, thus sayeth the Lord. To know that you don't have to figure everything out in your life and answer all the hard questions at this moment, because God is there, with the pen, writing out your life story, if I'd only stop trying to wrench the pen from his hand; if I'd allow him to dictate my thoughts, my actions, my attitudes. To take my mind and transform my inner woman, changing her from an ugly old withered up bitter selfish woman and make her something beautiful, vibrant, alive.
Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus.
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