Friday, July 9, 2010

Darkness vs. Light

"Jesus once described his coming like this: 'The light has come 
into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because
their deeds were evil' (John 3:19). Here the issue of salvation is loving
or hating the light. Love darkness, or love light. That’s the crisis of the
soul. But what is love for darkness? It’s preferring darkness, liking darkness,
wanting darkness, running to darkness, being glad with darkness.
But all of that is what Jesus demands for himself: 'Prefer my light, like
my fellowship, want my wisdom, run to my refuge, be glad in my grace.
Above all, delight in me as a person.' Look around on all that the world
can give; then say with the apostle Paul, 'My desire is to depart and be
with Christ, for that is far better' (Phil. 1:23). That is what it means to
love Christ. And to have no love for him is to be accursed.
Surely, then, this is worth fighting for. It may feel strange at first, but
when we see what is at stake, no battle will seem more important.
Loving Christ involves delight in his Person. Without this love no one
goes to heaven. Therefore there is no more important struggle in the universe
than the struggle to see and savor Christ above all things—the
struggle for joy."
John Piper in When I Don't Desire God

"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 to 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."  C. S. Lewis


Right now, I don't have many words of my own to say.  Who really needs them anyways when we have people like Piper and Lewis to clarify deeper truths to us?  I have less answers than I do questions these days.  I have been convicted of how much I retreat to the darkness, how I find some sort of strange comfort in it, and how far short this way of living falls from living in Christ. I'm praying for a change of pattern in the way I live.  God can do this in my heart and glorify Himself in me.

3 comments:

Brad said...

I never tire of reading these quotes from Lewis. The Weight of Glory and Mere Christianity are excellent, excellent works that should be read by every Christian.

Brad

Christina said...

That's one of my favorite C.S. Lewis quotes!

Karin said...

I love finding words of others that speak to my spirit. I'm not familiar with Piper, but I do love Lewis. A Grief Observed is one of my favorites.

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