I am a big C.S. Lewis fan. His writings helped anchor me during the Dark Night I walked through. He has a way of saying things that helps me put my finger on what I've been feeling or thinking and making sense of them. He makes things which are intangible into figurative language I can relate to. I think this piece also speaks faith.
"Most people, if they had really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise.
"We do not want to merely "see" beauty--though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words--to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it.
"At present we are on the outside... the wrong side of the door. We discern the freshness and purity of morning, but they do not make us fresh and pure. We cannot mingle with the pleasures we see. But all the pages of the New Testament are rustling with the rumor that it will not always be so. Someday, God willing, we shall get "in"... We will put on glory... that greater glory of which Nature is only the first sketch.
"The Christian says, 'Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists.' A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.
"If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only... to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, echo, or mirage.
"I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to the other country and to help others do the same."
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
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2 comments:
Your post on C.S. Lewis' writing is ....well, it's one of the most profound quotes I've ever read. I was familiar with the line "If I find within myself a desire that no experience in this world can satisfy, then the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world." I've quoted this often. But I never knew where it was from. I think if people understood what Lewis is saying, well...just think how the world would be a different place. Thanks for your post.
- Michael Ledner
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