Suffering
I think today I'd like to share something that God has been putting on my heart for quiet some time. As a matter of fact, this could even be concidered a retrospect to suffering that has come and past.
The fact of the matter, deep inside I feel like everyone is suffering. Some not so bad, some tremendiously. Some people's (like mine was) soul are in compleate turmoil due to spirtual doubts, or they cannot get over their sin that they keep slipping into. Whatever it is, everyone is suffering, hurting, and some of them are in so much pain it is almost unbearable. What worstens this fact is that we feel like we must suffer alone. Our doubts of religion are embarrasing to us. If we reject God, will he ever take us back? We are forced with a false sense that we must wear a mask to make everyone think all is well.
All is not well.
With that beared in mind, I'd like to read passages from two books, that I feel might give some insight into why we suffer.
C.S. Lewis says:
"A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting against it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of a wind by trying to talk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find the strength of the evil impulse inside us untill we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is the only man who knows to the full what temptation means-the only complete realist. Very well then. The main thing we learn from a serious attempt to pratice the Christian virtues is that we fail."-mere christianity
My next quote, it may need a little bit of introduction if you dont know the story of "the man who was thursday". The quote opens with the anarchist, representing the evil man, accusing the police, representing the good men.
"I do not curse you for being cruel. I do not curse you (though I might) for being kind. I curse you for being safe! You sit in your chairs of stone, and have never come down from them. You are the seven angels of heaven, and you have had no troubles. Oh, I could forgive you everything, you that rule all mankind, if I could feel for once that you had suffered for one hour a real agony such as I--”
Syme sprang to his feet, shaking from head to foot.
“I see everything,” he cried, “everything that there is. Why does each thing on the earth war against each other thing? Why does each small thing in the world have to fight against the world itself? Why does a fly have to fight the whole universe? Why does a dandelion have to fight the whole universe? For the same reason that I had to be alone in the dreadful Council of the Days. So that each thing that obeys law may have the glory and isolation of the anarchist. So that each man fighting for order may be as brave and good a man as the dynamiter. So that the real lie of Satan may be flung back in the face of this blasphemer, so that by tears and torture we may earn the right to say to this man, ‘You lie!’ No agonies can be too great to buy the right to say to this accuser, ‘We also have suffered.’
“It is not true that we have never been broken. We have been broken upon the wheel. It is not true that we have never descended from these thrones. We have descended into hell. We were complaining of unforgettable miseries even at the very moment when this man entered insolently to accuse us of happiness. I repel the slander; we have not been happy."
-G.K Chesterson
I hope this serves as a way to show why we suffer. "So that each thing that obeys law may have the glory and isolation of the anarchist." At the end of our days, people cannot say that we took the easy road out by choosing Christianity. People cannot say that we have lived a happy and content life of a Christian, while they have been living a sad, Godless life, but seeking the real Truth. We too have suffered, we too have been tormented. But we do it with hope, the hope of Christ.
I gotta jet to class... maybe more to come
in hope
Mike
The fact of the matter, deep inside I feel like everyone is suffering. Some not so bad, some tremendiously. Some people's (like mine was) soul are in compleate turmoil due to spirtual doubts, or they cannot get over their sin that they keep slipping into. Whatever it is, everyone is suffering, hurting, and some of them are in so much pain it is almost unbearable. What worstens this fact is that we feel like we must suffer alone. Our doubts of religion are embarrasing to us. If we reject God, will he ever take us back? We are forced with a false sense that we must wear a mask to make everyone think all is well.
All is not well.
With that beared in mind, I'd like to read passages from two books, that I feel might give some insight into why we suffer.
C.S. Lewis says:
"A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting against it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of a wind by trying to talk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find the strength of the evil impulse inside us untill we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is the only man who knows to the full what temptation means-the only complete realist. Very well then. The main thing we learn from a serious attempt to pratice the Christian virtues is that we fail."-mere christianity
My next quote, it may need a little bit of introduction if you dont know the story of "the man who was thursday". The quote opens with the anarchist, representing the evil man, accusing the police, representing the good men.
"I do not curse you for being cruel. I do not curse you (though I might) for being kind. I curse you for being safe! You sit in your chairs of stone, and have never come down from them. You are the seven angels of heaven, and you have had no troubles. Oh, I could forgive you everything, you that rule all mankind, if I could feel for once that you had suffered for one hour a real agony such as I--”
Syme sprang to his feet, shaking from head to foot.
“I see everything,” he cried, “everything that there is. Why does each thing on the earth war against each other thing? Why does each small thing in the world have to fight against the world itself? Why does a fly have to fight the whole universe? Why does a dandelion have to fight the whole universe? For the same reason that I had to be alone in the dreadful Council of the Days. So that each thing that obeys law may have the glory and isolation of the anarchist. So that each man fighting for order may be as brave and good a man as the dynamiter. So that the real lie of Satan may be flung back in the face of this blasphemer, so that by tears and torture we may earn the right to say to this man, ‘You lie!’ No agonies can be too great to buy the right to say to this accuser, ‘We also have suffered.’
“It is not true that we have never been broken. We have been broken upon the wheel. It is not true that we have never descended from these thrones. We have descended into hell. We were complaining of unforgettable miseries even at the very moment when this man entered insolently to accuse us of happiness. I repel the slander; we have not been happy."
-G.K Chesterson
I hope this serves as a way to show why we suffer. "So that each thing that obeys law may have the glory and isolation of the anarchist." At the end of our days, people cannot say that we took the easy road out by choosing Christianity. People cannot say that we have lived a happy and content life of a Christian, while they have been living a sad, Godless life, but seeking the real Truth. We too have suffered, we too have been tormented. But we do it with hope, the hope of Christ.
I gotta jet to class... maybe more to come
in hope
Mike