Lewis, Love and Pirate English

"For the dream of finding our end, of the things we were made for, in a Heaven of purely human love could not be true unless our whole Faith were wrong. We were made for God. Only by being in some respect life I'm, only by being a manifestation of His beauty, loving- kindness, wisdom or goodness, has any earthly Beloved excited our love. It is not that we have loved them too much, but that we did not quite understand what we were loving. It is not that we shall be asked to turn from them, so dearly familiar, to a Stranger. When we see the face of God we shall know that we have always known it. He has been a party to, has made, sustained, and moved moment b moment within, ll out earthy experience of innocent love. All that was true love in them was, even on earth, far more His than ours, and ours only because His. In heaven there will be more anguish and no duty of turning away from our earthly Beloveds. First, because we shall have turned already; fro m the portraits of the Original, from the rivulets to the Fountain, from the creatures He made lovable to the Love Himself. But secondly, because we shall find them all in Him. By loving Him more than them we shall love them more than we now do. " - C.S. Lewis The Four Loves 

Just finished this book. And as one heralds it as a "modern mirror of our souls" mirroring the virtues and vices of human loving, i'd say "arr this be pleasin' to me eye". First things first, did you know that you can change your Facebook default language to "English Pirate". Yup... and i guess the thumbs up "I Like" transliteration would be "arr this be pleasin' to me eye". Try it. It's funny.

But back to C.S. Lewis.

So this book. It's thick. So thick i probably read it 3 times or so unknowingly. But, classics are classics for a reason, and sifting through it was well worth it. It talks about Four Loves. Obviously. Affection, Friendship, Eros and Charity; and humans tendencies, vice and virtue, in regards to them. The entire book was thought provoking, but I'll focus on a few things.

"Nature never taught me that there exists a God of glory and of infinite majesty. I had to learn that in other ways. But nature gave the word glory a meaning for me. I still do not know where else I could have found one. I do not see how the 'fear' of God could have ever meant anything but the lowest prudential efforts to be safe, if I had never seen certain ominous ravines and unapproachable crags., And if nature had never awakened certain longings in me, huge areas of what I can now mean by the 'love' of God would never, so far as I can see, have existed."

Don't know about you, but I'd be the first to say "Nature is where I meet with God." Which to a degree is true, but in a different capacity. Being in nature, in all its elements, provides me with an image of the attributes of the invisible God.  It gives me tangible evidences of God's character. So, yes, when i retreat to nature, i am going to get a snapshot to help me understand the character of God! I wonder if that's why God created the heavens and the earth before he created humans? If we had nothing of material essence to help us understand this immaterial God, how could we know his character and in return love him?

Last thought.

"What is near Him by likeness is never, by that fact alone, going to be any nearer. But nearness by approach is, by definition, increasing nearness."

I am created in the image of God. A daughter of his and therefore share a nearness to him simply because i was created in his likeness. However, when i approach the God of heaven and earth-- daily, momentarily, unceasingly-- i come near to Him increasingly. The nearer I draw to him to more closely i am to resemble Him. The closer i am to him, the more i love him. The more i love him, the more i live like he did. The more i live like he did, the more people will see a difference. 

"Our imitation of God in this life... must be an imitation of God incarnate: our model is Jesus, not only of Calvary, but of the workshop, the roads, the crowds, the clamorous demands, and surly oppositions, the lack of all peace ad privacy, the interruptions. For this, so strangely unlike anything we can attribute to the Divine life in itself, is apparently not only like, but is the Divine life operating under human conditions."

Sarah Potts: wants to look like Jesus. 

Jesus: "arr this be pleasin' to me eye". 

: )

The Slow Life

I’ve recently found that living the slow life is more complicated than I planned for. In the midst of folks living out the fast life, it is seemingly more stressful to slow down than it is to simply keep up. I’m finding out what a master I’ve become of the fast life, and that it’s the slow life I need help with.
With the turning of my tassel came also a new page in life. Obviously. A season I set aside, to look forward at the future, while soaking in the rest of “just being” for a while. I graduated significantly tired and sadly slothful. Overworked. Overloaded. And overlooked. I’ve needed a break. From school. From work. From life. Just for a little bit. To tend to the things I’ve left hanging for a while. To enjoy a cup of coffee on the porch without having to rush off to class. To sit and read a book without the knock of duty at my door. To not shower for a day, sit in old work out clothes, and not have to worry about who I’ll see or how I look walking into the café. However, though I came into this summer, intentionally planning not to work, and with no studies to study, forcing myself to relax, I’m four weeks in and tired of the rest.
A little “stir crazy” if you will. In the company of friends and family going about life at normal, hyper speed, I’m finding my efforts less than impressive and lazy at best. “What did you do today?” “Well, I slept in. Made some tea. Facebooked for a while. Real booked for a little while. Went for a run and then started dinner.” For an outsider it sounds like a rather restful, enjoyable day. And as an insider it was such, up until week two. I was rather fine moseying around the house doing practically nothing. But now guilt has set in and I’m scrounging around for something—anything—to do. This slow pace isn’t good for me. And the efforts to be good at it make it less enjoyable.
Now don’t get me wrong. I like slow. I enjoy waking up to lunch hunger pangs. The noon sun, beating in my window, waking me up is delightful (though often hot). I enjoy a cup of coffee on the swing to start a day with no plans. And I like looking at the clock at 2:30 only to notice I’m still in my PJ’s and have no clean clothes to change into. I can live with those things.
But not every day.
I need something to put my hand to. I’m so used to working toward something. This inactivity is driving me mad! (not literally... at least not yet). But what I am concluding is this... slowing down while everyone else is keeping pace isn’t working out so hot. And while I’m attempting to refresh and restock, I’m slowly becoming guilt’s prey and I think she’s winning.