c.s. lewis on joy

“... an unsatisfied desire which is itself more desirable than any other satisfaction. I call it Joy ... Joy (in my sense) has indeed one characteristic... the fact that anyone who has experienced it will want it again. Apart from that, and considered only in its quality, it might almost equally well be called a particular kind of unhappiness or grief. But then it is a kind we want. I doubt whether anyone who has tasted it would ever, if it were in his power, exchange it for all the pleasures in the world. But then Joy is never in our power, and pleasure often is.” (C.S. Lewis; Surprised by Joy; 1955)

neglect and diverted attention

so, i have had this problem this week where it has felt like something was stuck between my two front teeth and because of this i have tried flossing there numerous times. problem is, because i have been so focussed on getting rid of the disturbance between my these teeth i have not flossed the rest of my mouth for more than week.

and that got me thinking- i wonder if sometimes we are sensitive to a particular battle in our christian lives and we draw battle lines against something in particular, while the enemy gains an advantage on other fronts. for example: you may wage war on the sin of greediness and decide to give more and more of your time and money away only to find that within a few months you think that you have done God a favour or that the money was yours to give in the first place.

and maybe this carries on until one day you need root canal on your molars cos you were distracted by what your two front teeth were looking like.

carl has rushed into august

even these words which i choose now seem impossible to select as i try to convey the effect that a movie can have on someone. august rush has taken my breath away. and now i only have breath left enough to type. not to speak. not to spoil the music. not to steal the silence. only to keep hearing.

folks, august rush is a must see movie. my words can’t add... my words will only steal and therefore I will convince you with words that are not my own:

“I believe in music the way some people believe in fairy-tales”

“Do you like music, August?” ... “i do ... more than food...”

“Only some can hear the music because only some of us are listening”

this movie is more than a tear-jerking nice idea with good acting and original story-line. it is beauty that has made me more than what i would have been should i have picked another movie to watch today...

pleasure {srewtape #2}

(remember the The Enemy is God and Our Father is Satan because these are letters between fellow demons...)

“Never forget that when we are dealing with any pleasure in its healthy and normal and satisfying form, we are, in a sense on the Enemy’s ground. I know we have won many a soul through pleasure. All the same, it is His invention, not ours. He made the pleasures: all of our research so far has not enabled us to produce one. All we can do is to encourage the humans to take the pleasures which our Enemy has produced, at times, or in ways, or in degrees, which he has forbidden. Hence, we always try to work away from the natural condition of any pleasures to that in which it is least natural, least redolent [strongly reminiscent or suggestive of something] of it’s Maker, and least pleasurable. An ever increasing craving for an ever diminishing pleasure is the formula .... To get the man’s soul and to give him nothing in return- that is what really gladdens Our Father’s heart.” (Lewis, 1976, pg 54)

Last night our Church received a sermon that is for me one of the cornerstones of proper theological thinking, and of a correct understanding of man in relation to God: the message was that the pursuit of pleasure for a Christian is not a bad thing. For many decades and centuries, the church has has been a kill-joy. It has given the world the idea that pleasure is a bad thing, and if something feels good then perhaps it is not good.

This is perhaps the greatest lie that the real enemy has told and had believed. C.S Lewis arguing this point in a sermon one day, while discussing joy in God said the following: “The problem is not that we don’t persue happiness but that we dont persue it hard enough. We are too easily satisfied.”

If we ran after pleasure and only found rest in the highest forms of it, then we would find ourselves resting with God.