C.S. Lewis and my Reflections

Original post: 2/21/07

So lately I've had a C.S. Lewis Quote stuck in my head and went searching online for it.

"Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased." - The Weight of Glory

When I found it, I also found a number of other quotes that I really liked. I've read a good amount of his fiction, but not a lot of his nonfiction. The following quotes have convinced me that I need to start reading his nonfiction as soon as I can get my hands on some.

"Love is something more stern and splendid than mere kindness." - The Problem of Pain

"Love may forgive all infirmities and love still in spite of them: but Love cannot cease to will their removal." -The Problem of Pain

"This year, or this month, or, more likely, this very day, we have failed to practice ourselves the kind of behavior we expect from other people." -Mere Christianity

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken." -The Four Loves

"Everyone feels benevolent if nothing happens to be annoying him at the moment." -The Problem of Pain

But the first quote is the one that I've been thinking about for the last several days; the idea that we are content in this world to substitute the potential greatness offered us because we are not only unable to imagine such greatness, but because we are content to amuse ourselves with drink, sex, ambition, sports, art, television, and shopping. Even as Christians we are often able to put such worldly activities in a place of greater importance despite knowing and "believing" in God's promises.

I'd been thinking this past year about how I am "far too easily pleased" and don't bother to give the extra effort in what I do, or settle for less than I know is due me, simply because it's easier. I got my STRIVE tattoo to be a reminder of this fact, and yet, I can think of a number of times since getting it that I've ignored my own "advice" and settled or compromised in order to make things easier. What are we, but fickle beings who cling only to what makes us feel better, feel safer, only to change our minds about what we like, when constant, uncompromising joy, strength, safety, and peace are available to us in God.