“If you think of this world as a place intended simply for our happiness, you find it quite intolerable: think of it as a place of training and correction and it’s not so bad”
CS Lewis
Wow! Two posts in a row with Lewis quotes- I know crazy, right? Well I couldn’t pass on this one. It is so unexpected!
At first read, it seems like he is being kind of a pessimist. Think of the world as a place not meant for your happiness? It kind of goes against every American ideal…pursuit of happiness and all that jazz…?
But when I read it again, I realize how incredibly FREEING it is! Like a breath of fresh air in a humid jungle, the realization that my life is not about me is an epiphany. Every time I feel stressed, it is because I think my life is all about ME. Every worry is for MY sake. Every burden is tangled up in the mess of MYSELF. I have made my life intolerable for myself by making it about me. How did I get to this point? I am consumed and enslaved by the snares of my wants, my desires, my worries, my cares.
But one little shift in perspective sets all to rights!
Jesus is the center. In him I have freedom from the monster in myself.
My perspective is so upside down. I forget that I am living for another world; that this is just my temporary home…that everything that is right in this world, is only so because it is a little remnant of what was in Eden, and what will be in that eternal bliss he is preparing for me.
Reader, I truly thank you for indulging me with reading on. I know I ramble and may not even come to a conclusive finish, but I so appreciate that you take the time to tag along. Have a blessed, blessed day!
