I was reading a book by C.S. Lewis last night and …
March 14th, 2005 | by Jeremy |I was reading a book by C.S. Lewis last night and came across something that kinda built on what I posted in my blog here on February 26…
“I am progressing along the path of life in my ordinary contentedly fallen and godless condition, absorbed in a merry meeting with my friends for the morrow or a bit of work that tickles my vanity today, a holiday or a new book, when suddenly a stab of abdominal pain that theatens serious disease, or a headline in the newspapers that threatens us all with destruction, sends this whole pack of cards tumbling down. At first I am overwhelmed, and all my little happinesses look like broken toys. Then, slowly and reluctantly, bit by bit, I try to bring myself into the frame of mind that I should be in at all times. I remind myself that all these toys were never intended to possess my heart, that my true good is in another world and my only real treausre is Christ. And perhaps, by God’s grace, I succeed, and for a day or two become a creature consciously dependent on God and drawing its strength from the right sources. But the moment the threat is withdrawn, my whole nature leaps back to the toys: I am even anxious, God forgive me, to banish from my mind the only thing that supported me under the threat because it is now associated with the misery of those few days.” — C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain.
Lewis goes on to explain why the tribulations we face in our life are often needed so that we refocus on the things that are important. Yet we always slip back to our “ordinary contentedly fallen and godless condition”. As I said on February 26, I don’t know if it’s possible to stay in that state of mind all the time. But it helps us to refocus on what’s important in life and reminds us that many of the things we strive for are actually meaningless.