And now, what does it all matter? It matters more than anything else in the world.
The whole dance, or drama, or pattern of this three-Personal life
is to be played out in each one of us: or (putting it the other way round)
each one of us has got to enter that pattern, take his place in that dance.
There is no other way to the happiness for which we were made.
Good things as well as bad, you know, are caught by a kind of infection.
If you want to get warm you must stand near the fire:
if you want to be wet you must get into the water.
If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life,
you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them.
They are not a sort of prize which God could, if He chose, just hand out to anyone.
They are a great fountain of energy and beauty
spurting up at the very centre of reality.
If you are close to it, the spray will wet you;
if you are not, you will remain dry.
Once a man is united to God, how could he not live forever?
Once a man is separated from God, what can he do but wither and die?
The whole dance, or drama, or pattern of this three-Personal life
is to be played out in each one of us: or (putting it the other way round)
each one of us has got to enter that pattern, take his place in that dance.
There is no other way to the happiness for which we were made.
Good things as well as bad, you know, are caught by a kind of infection.
If you want to get warm you must stand near the fire:
if you want to be wet you must get into the water.
If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life,
you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them.
They are not a sort of prize which God could, if He chose, just hand out to anyone.
They are a great fountain of energy and beauty
spurting up at the very centre of reality.
If you are close to it, the spray will wet you;
if you are not, you will remain dry.
Once a man is united to God, how could he not live forever?
Once a man is separated from God, what can he do but wither and die?
~C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, as quoted in A Year with C. S. Lewis (emphasis mine)
This message is just what I needed to hear this morning- that God's gifts are not handed out like a prize to the deserving, but something we must seek out and embrace. Going to do some seeking and embracing to start my day! :)
ReplyDeleteWe loooove CSL! Thanks for that!
ReplyDeleteMmmmm...
ReplyDeleteI love the way C.S. Lewis makes you slow down enough to chew on what he's said.
Thanks for sharing that! We so love C.S. Lewis-I'm even reading Mere Christianity right now...and Naria with the kids. It's great stuff.
ReplyDeleteWhoa! My dh is always trying to get me to read C.S. Lewis. I'm ashamed to say I haven't read much of him (except for TCON of course). I know that there is a wealth of information, knowledge and good things in his writing. Thank you for sharing something really wonderful today.
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