Are You Slumming?

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Hello Girls!
I only have a minute to pop in and say hello as I am in the heat of preparing for a retreat with Lisa-Writes’ church this weekend. I am beside myself with anticipation over what God will do with all of us during this time we’ve set apart to meet with Him! I can’t wait to be face-to-face with this group of girls whom I’ve already met in the heavenlies through my petitions to God on their behalf. There is no one besides He and me who knows what a flake I can be but I rest in the fact that even though I can fail, He can not.
So, I came to tell you I have a confession to make. I’ve been holding out on you. I didn’t want to put this nugget out there because it’s almost like a spoiler of sorts, but I can hardly stand it any longer.

During my prep for this study, I have run across an idea, a thought rather, that has altered my perspective. I totally dig it when that happens. You won’t be shocked to learn it is from C.S. Lewis. Hear this excerpt from The Weight of Glory:

I don’t know about you, but I’m not satisfied with my crazy, running around life. Will you pray with me that I’ll recognize what a full measure of joy looks like? That my pursuits will be holy and that I will not stop until I have found that treasure in the field and spent everything I have to buy

it? I’ll pray this for you, too. Because you know what?

“If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it as a bad thing I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. 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.”

 
And there it is. That little paragraph explains so much to me about our human condition and the things we chase after. Personally I have wasted so much time pursuing temporal things. Not being able to attain money or status or relationships is not the problem. The fact that Satan allows us to attain them is the problem. It’s like a tasty carrot dangling in front of our nose. We get a nibble and we want a little more. So we run harder and harder after a taste when we could have had a belly full. We are satisfied with the carrot when we could have had looked up and feasted endlessly on the apple tree. 
And I know I’m off on a tangent. Don’t get scared Lisa…I’ll try not to get all philosophical on you girls. However, I just can’t get the picture out of my mind of that child playing in the slums when the sea is waiting. Where is your satisfaction, girlfriend? Where is mine? Are we settling for far too little of an infinite God?

I’m over slumming.

Anybody up for a trip to the beach?