I found many of C. S. Lewis’s views very interesting while listening to him speak about the type of love called Eros. One of these concepts is that love doesn’t always bring happiness. Lewis said that a couple in love would rather share unhappiness with each other rather than being happy anywhere else. After thinking about this idea, I realized that this is not only true for us with our relationships with our loved ones, but it is also true of our relationship with God. We are not always happy with what is going on in our lives, and sometimes this unhappiness can come from our spiritual life. But just because we’re going through difficulties doesn’t mean that we want to turn our back to God because we know that won’t help the situation. We could search for happiness in worldly things, but we still would have greater comfort in God’s love, and that’s where we would rather be. Without God we would have no joy in our lives so no matter what difficulties we are facing, we would rather be with Him just as a couple in live would prefer each other’s company over happiness from another source.
Another concept that Lewis spoke about is that falling in love is something that happens to you, but being in love is a choice. Although this is not exactly what happens in our relationship with God, it can still be applied. When God calls us to be His children, we can’t help but follow Him just as we can’t help falling in love. In order to have a strong relationship with God, we must work hard everyday to learn more about Him like we do with our loved ones. One difference however is that no matter what we do, God will always love us. We constantly cheat on Him with other worldly activities, but He still calls us to be His children. No relationship we can acquire on earth will be as wonderful as our relationship with God because only God can give us truly unconditional love.
Thanks for your post Court :)
ReplyDeleteI espcially appreciate your last paragraph where you talk about the similarities of an earthly relationship and our relationship to God. It is like the example Lewis gives. We like to dive, but once we are in the water, it is a completely different story. We have to work at it. I remember seeing a sign once that said- Love is a verb. I completely agree. To love someone sometimes means sacrificing yourself for them. We should be especially willing to do this in the case of our God, but it certainly is not easy. We need to pray for strength to resist sin and follow instead after him.
I like the quote about falling in love happening but being in love is a choice. This to me seems to point at the troubles we are having in the modern day with the institute of marriage. People seem to prefer a divorce to trying to I don't know try to actually solve a problem. People swear til death do us part and yet they decide to split up and divorce on road bumps that could be worked out.
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