Essay

"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." –C.S. Lewis

            Throughout this course, this quote has stuck with me. I went into this course thinking that it was just a core that I had to get out of the way, and that sounded interesting but I did not expect to get anything out of it.  However, looking back on these last three weeks it is very obvious that God had something different planned for me. On the first day after reading “Meditation in the Toolshed” I realized that maybe I was getting more than I bargained for. It had never occurred to me before that day that one needs to look along something. I mean what is that? I have always said to myself it is what it is, and now someone was challenging me to something totally different.

            C.S. has one reoccurring theme and that I believe is this quote, saying that we as Christians are far too easily pleased, and I think it is because we do not have the capacity to fully understand what God has in store for us. I think that because we are not able to understand the things that God has in store for us we as Lewis says are like the “Ostrich with our head in the sand.”  Lewis points out that we are constantly trying to find things to fill this void with Earthly things, but we have never experienced the joy of eternity so we cannot find anything to fill this void.  

            We are like children making mud pies; we try to fill this void with things that will not give us everlasting joy. Like in “We Have no Right to Happiness” we will try to fill this void with whatever we can. We will destroy the lives of other people in order to try and secure our own happiness. “We fool around with drink and sex.” How many Christians do we know that go out and party on the weekends and then go hung over to church on Sunday?  Not only are we not being Christ like we are using other things to substitute for him.  This also reminds me of the “Screwtape Letters” where Screwtape is telling his nephew Wormwood that it is actually beneficial for their patient to keep attending church. His patient is to feel the “dim uneasiness,” so that he is uncomfortable enough to keep attending church and associating with other Christians, but not too uncomfortable to think that he needs to repent.  He is demonstrating the typical lukewarm behavior that Christians have. We want to have that relationship with Christ, but it is so often that we do not want to do what God calls us by giving up Earthly things. We want to keep the things of this Earth, and we want the things of God’s kingdom. However, Revelation 3:16 says “So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” Even though we feel content right now, God says that he will disown us when judgment day comes. Screwtape himself says “Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.” We will have our fate secured in Hell before we even realize it if we become too easily pleased.  Some Christians may want to say “Being a dedicated Christian is too hard!” However, we learn in “Mere Christianity” that it really all starts very simply, even those who are not Christians can agree that we need to all live by the same moral code. However, we tend to slip back into the tendencies of sin and instead of acting as a body of Christ we start to break each other down, and sometimes competing with one another to see who the best is.  Within the church we try and see who can be on the most committees, give the most to the church, and volunteer the most.  However C.S. Lewis says "It is not for us to say who, in the deepest sense, is or is not close to the spirit of Christ." It comes to my mind that sometimes we seek the approval and praise of our peers over our God. We want that immediate Earthly gratification.

            Like I have been saying, this theme from Lewis occurs time and time again in his writing, he tells us that we are not realizing the joy that awaits us. We are perfectly content with acquiring the things of this world, but what good will these do us? We can’t take our corvette to heaven.   Lewis again brings this up in “The Poison of Subjectivism.” He tells us that if water stands to long, it begins to stink. So, if we as Christians become stagnant in our faith, we will begin to stink. The devil will take hold of us, and we will be on that gradual slope to Hell.

            Also, during this interim we read Engaging God’s World. I found that Plantinga and Lewis had a lot of the same views. When reading Chapter three I was surprised by the statement that Plantinga makes saying that evil needs good to be evil. Evil is not something that comes about on its own, it is because of our sin and the fall that there is evil. When our good intentions get misconstrued is when evil occurs. Also, I have learned how easily we sin without even thinking, I started to re evaluate how I did things throughout this course and I realized that I was sinning without even thinking about it. I also realized that the biggest way I sin is judging people before I have a chance to meet them, and ultimately judging how I was better than them. It is just as Screwtape says a slow and gradual road into Satan’s arms.

            Even though sin is overwhelming, and the inability to remain pure for God and his kingdom is impossible in my Earthly lifetime there is also an overwhelming hope. 

"The glory of God's good creation has not been obliterated by the tragedy of the fall, but it has been deeply shadowed by it" (Plantinga). How wonderful! All is not lost, even though we have done absolutely everything that we can to disappoint God, and really do the worst things a child can do to their father we are told that all is well. We are not lost; God is still going to save us. He will welcome use with open arms and say “Well done my good and faithful servant,” Even though we have not been faithful the entire time. We have been faithful in our repentances, in saying “God I was wrong, please forgive me and guide me in your way.”  

            Even though this Earth seems to be more that I am made to handle, I have this everlasting hope, and someday it will be joy in my redemption. God has shown me that this life is a gift, and if I live my life for him, someday I will be rewarded. I, and all Christians need to keep this hope alive in our hearts so that we do not become too easily pleased, and we keep striving to live our lives for God.

The world shall live with the lamb. the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them" (Plantinga).

Works Cited

Lewis, C.S. The Screwtape Letters. N.p.: HarperOne, 2001. Print.

Lewis, C.S. Mere Christianity. N.p.: HarperSanFrancisco, 2001. Print.

Lewis, C.S. The Weight of Glory. N.p.: HarperSanFrancisco, 2001. Print.

Lewis, C.S. The Poison of Subjectivism N.p.: HarperOne, 2002. Print

Plantinga, Cornelius. Engaging God's World. N.p.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2002. Print

Plantinga :Chapter 5

Plantinga talks about the Kingdom of God in this chapter. When reading this like when I was reading "Learning in War Time" I was thinking about how easily we loose sign of God's kingdom. We get too caught up in the things of this world that we forget about eternity. I think that because our world teaches us to be concerned about ourselves and the things we can to get to gratify ourselves in a short amount of time. No one wants to focus on eternity because it will not make them happy right now.

However, we need to remember that in everything we do we are to be stewards for God. Plantinga explains that we are called by his will. It is not always what we want to follow but it what we are called to do. I chose to be a nursing major, but that is because I felt a very strong call to do so. I have worked for two years as a CNA taking care of the elderly, and that is one of the greatest joys God has brought to my life. I think that God has seen a place where I can glorify him while seeking my vocation. I benefit spiritually from being able to help others, and being a missionary to them at the same time.

Man or Rabbit

Are you a man or a rabbit. Lewis always has the strangest ways of telling us how we are not living up to our full potential as Christians.

Lewis very clearly says that those of us who purposefully avoid becoming a Christian are worse off than those who had never had the chance to hear of God's grace. I can think of some different times where I have avoided God, I have stuck my head in the sand. When in high school, and it wasn't cool to act like a Christian.  The worst time of my life was when I was deliberately looking on the other side of the road, when God was clearly trying to get my attention.

I had lost my grandfather in a terrible accident, and decided that no God would ever do that to a family like mine. My grandfather had died while working for my father, and for years I watched him blame himself and take his anger out on others because he could not handle the guilt. I was not going to a God who had allowed such terrible things to happen the time of day.  I became severely depressed, lived everyday watching my family endure this awful desert.  Someone who saw me struggling suggest that I read the book "The Shack" In this book a father looses his daughter to a serial killer, and in his desperate attempt to solve the murder he gets himself into a terrible accident which lands him in a coma. When in a coma he thinks he is spending a weekend with the members of the trinity. God very carefully explains to this grieving father that we begged him for free will ,and because we have the ability to chose for ourselves some people make evil choices. God explains that he does not cause bad things to happen, but he uses the bad things to show us his love for us.

Finally it clicked with me. Yes, I had suffered a terrible loss, but look at what my grandfather had gained. He spend his whole life devoted to Christ and he was justly rewarded. He met the Lord at Heaven's gates and was told "Well done my good and faithful servant!" God also used this tragedy to re introduce me to Hope, and to know that even though things in my family had fallen apart, they could be repaired.  God works in mysterious ways, but we have to ready for him to work in our lives, even looking for it. If we keep our heads in the sand we will miss out on the greatest gift.

Inner Ring

When I read this blog, all I could think about was high school, and all the inner rings within it. I completely agree with Lewis is saying that the ring only looks like it will make you happy from the outside, but once within the circle one realizes it will not bring them happiness.

As I said, this reminds me of being in high school ,and the same thing is being repeated with my sister who is currently a freshman. She plays sports and recently decided she no longer wanted to play basketball. Less than a week later her group of friends decided that she was no longer allowed to be within their "inner ring." 
This is a harsh reality, but it all honesty this is how it usually goes in all senses. Most people want to keep their inner ring stable. That means not letting anyone new in, and cutting off those who decide to leave.
It is the same when a new kid moves to school, it is hard for them to make friends or become a part of a social circle, because it will change an already established dynamic. The thing I find the most strange is that even though, in my experience trying to become part of an inner ring or sometimes even being part of an inner ring bring us pain or is a burden. We would find ourselves totally lost without them.

"Men tell not only their wives but themselves that it is a hardship to stay late at the office or the school on some bit of important extra work which they have been let in for because they and so-and-so and the two others are the only people left in the place who really know how things are run. But it is not quite true. . . A terrible bore ah, but how much more terrible if you were left out! It is tiring and unhealthy to lose your Saturday afternoons: but to have them free because you don't matter, that is much worse."

Eros

This reading was very interesting to me, before C.S. Lewis I never knew that love had different names. Of course one loves their family different than their spouse but I never went any further than that.

I found this reading so interesting I think because I was looking at it from a married perspective. I never thought of me not being "submissive" to my husband was sinful, especially if it was because he had done something wrong or because I thought I had a better idea. I find it hard in a lot of areas of my life to not be in control. So, when I made this transition to marriage, it was all glorious for the first couple months, but then the grind of school came into play, managing a budget, and everything else in between.
It has been hard for me to remember what the Bible calls me to do as a wife. I am to listen to him and to love him, but he is also to do that for me.

When Tom, my husband and I were in premarital counseling he said "If Tom loves you the way Christ loves the church, then I promise you will have no problem being obedient." Amazing right? 

C.S. Lewis says "For the church has no beauty but what the bride-groom gives her; he dos not find, but makes her lovely." When first reading this, it may come off the wrong way. However, when I thought about it I remembered that you do not love someone because they are beautiful, they are beautiful because you love them.

It made me look back to a time when I was terribly sick with the flu, my head so congested that when I talked I sounded like a man, and I am sure that I just smelled like death warmed over. However, Tom brought me a glass of hot lemon tea and said you are so perfect, and you are taking this like a champ. I mean come one right? Was he out of his mind?  Lewis and the Bible both say no, I don't need to be all dolled up and in some tight pair of jeans for him to compliment me, because that is not why he married me.

If one marries only for the looks, they will be very disappointed.

Plantinga Chapter 4

" I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations. . . to be God to you and to your offspring after you." Genesis 17:7

What a wonderful gift! God has promised us his gift of Grace, and not only is it just our gift of grace but it is for all of those who come after us as well. Plantinga discusses in this Chapter that we have received a "Double Grace" this is justification and sanctification. We are justified in that our sins are forgiven and removed from us, then we are sanctified by acting Christ-like. We are to be like a child trying on a grown-ups clothes. We are not Christ, but we are trying to be like him.

"Christians are people who dress up like Christ, not because we want to deceive people into thinking we are better than we are, but because the only way we can become better than we are is by trying on our grownup clothes."  Like Martin Luther says our good works are not the cause of righteousness, but because we have been given that gift by God we are able to go out and do good things.

Another thing that just blew me away reading this chapter was that we can be "liberated and flourish." by obeying the 10 commandments. I would have never before reading this book thought that this was true. I have always thought that because I am a Christian and I want to be Christ like that I need to say no and deny myself. However Plantinga paints this beautiful picture of what life would be like if just for one day everyone obeyed the 10 commandments.

"Imagine what the world would be like if for even one day everybody lived in complete obedience to the Ten Commandments:. . . no murder; no stealing; no adultery that breaks up families. . . for one day all would tell the truth, give to those in need, protect their neighbors from harm, honor their parents, worship God with an appetite, and thus express love to God and to neighbor in a long undertow of joy."

This quote makes my heart soar, if everyone just worked a little harder to live and be like Christ, we would no longer dread turning on the evening news because it would not be smothered with stories of despair, but of joyous expressions of humanity.

We were made to be good, and I think that we sometimes forget that because we have been redeemed we need to commit our lives to living for Him.

Learning in War-Time

"Life has never been normal"

This quote from C.S. Lewis at first seemed to me to be humorous, and then once I started thinking about after we had watched the video of the woman in Brazil I started to feel sad. I started to apply this outside my life personally. I thought that while I sat in the classroom today, there were soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq fighting for their lives and my freedom. There were people in Brazil, Haiti, and many other places around the world just praying that God would get them through the day. I think how sad it is that our world has become this way, but what am I doing to help? I know that as a college student I am limited, or is that an excuse I am using? Lewis points out that yes things are going horribly wroung in our world, and people do make the excuse that they cannot stay in a classroom and learn because they are being called to save the world. However, we think that by donating money we will save the world which is not true. We need to be missionaries and spred the wonderful news of God.

"How can you be so frivolous and selfish as to think about anything but the salvation of human souls?"
How often do we as Christians even go a day without thinking about our own eternity? Not only do we fail to be concerned with our own souls, except for maybe on Sunday, but we are not even thinking about the souls of others. Yet, we are called as Christians to go out and spread the news of "great joy that will be for all the people."

We are called to live for God because he is infinite, he is what will be beyond the sorrows of this world. "Christianity does not simply replace our natural life and substitute a new one: it is rather a new organization which exploits to its own supernatural ends, these natural materials."   Too often we dedicate living this life to things that are finite "The rescue of drowning men is then a duty worth dying for, but not worth living for." Lewis explains that yes, it is important to do what we can to preserve the precious gift of live, but because there is an eternity the only thing we can dedicate our life to is God.

Engaging God's World Ch3

"Evil needs good to be evil." This seemed to come up alot within our discussion of this chapter of Plantinga's book. It is such a funny thing to think about, that evil is not its own but spoiled good. All evil stems from good, this is so difficult to wrap my mind around, yet it seems that it should be obvious. Because of the fall we have been destined to live our lives in sin. It is everywhere around us, and even though as Christians we try to avoid it, trouble has its way of finding us.

I was met with an example of evil as soon as I was out of the door this morning. I was on my way to work, when I noticed the vehicle in front of me had a bumper sticker that said "Hate Wins." My first thought was well have fun spending eternity with satan. Then I started to wonder what had happened to him in his lifetime that all he thought he had to resort to was hate. He had lost faith in "Love Wins" and turned toward evil. I sort of wanted to follow him so that I could ask him why he had this bumper sticker, and what caused him to believe it. I also began to realize that without even bothering to talk to this person, I had decided they were doomed to hell because they had hate on their vehicle, and bam there it is a sin right off the bat this morning. I was frightened at how easily it had happened without even thinking about it.

"The glory of God's good creation has not been obliterated by the tragedy of the fall, but it has been deeply shadowed by it." I know it seems odd to love this quote, but it presents this ray of hope for me. That even though the fall has compromised myself and all the others there is still good. There will not be sin forever, some day we will all be redeemed and live forever in a sinless eternity. I think this is so amazing. God's grace never seems to make me stand in awe of him. We as a human race have done everything we possible can to disappoint our father and then some, yet not only does he refuse to turn his back on us, he reaches out to us in love saying that we are forgiven and he will forget it ever happened.

"The world shall live with the lamb. the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them"

Poison

I have to be honest and say that this was not one of my favorite readings by C.S. Lewis, but it is still a good one. One of the things that struck me the most in this reading was the point Lewis makes about being stagnant in our Christian faith. This brought back memories for me from when I was younger. My grandmother always used to say to me "Idle hands make the devil's work." She usually was telling me this so that I would be helpful to her and my mother. However, when we were discussing in class this saying kept coming into my mind. It really is true. If we stand still in our Christianity, or "hold our hands idle" we are letting the devil take hold of us. Like in the reading of Screw tape, the patient was still going to church, but he was not growing in his faith. He was stagnant. I also thought about how this can apply to the position we hold in other people's lives. If we do not help other Christians grow in their faith, then aren't we helping the devil? How often is it that we know people are struggling with life decisions, or struggling to come to terms with the life God has given them and we do not help? I know for myself that it is very hard for me to listen to God telling me to help others. We so often hear him calling us to do something yet chose to go our own way, which is not what he desires for us.

  Another topic that was brought up withing class was the question if God needs to obey the moral law. This is tricky to think about. My stand is that he does not because God is all that is good in this universe. I think that God is perfect, and his having to obey the moral law would take away his Omnipotence.


 "God is not merely good, but goodness; goodness is not merely divine, but God."

Mere Christianity

"Mere Christianity" was something very interesting for me to read. It really brought a new perspective to how I view Christianity, and my own relationship with Christ. One of the first things that struck me was when Lewis talks about the word gentlemen and how it used to be a term that listed fact. It used to mean someone who had a coat of arms and a landed property, and now it is a judgment of character. Lewis uses this example with Christian. The world is suppose to mean an individual who believes in the doctrine. Lewis states "It is not for us tot say who, in the deepest sense, is or is not close to the spirit of Christ." We cannot as Christians judge who the better Christians are. Actually, God tells us that we are not allowed to judge because he of course is the only one who can judge at all.
    My favorite part of this reading was Chapter 1. The explanation of moral law. The thing that I found most interesting is that across all cultures there is some sort of moral law. Most cultures find fault in the killing of an innocent person, stealing another person's property, and most cultures also agree on the sanctity of marriage. They may not agree on the same number of wives as Lewis says, but they agree that you may not just have any women you want. This was very important to me in and argument against evolutionism. I don't think that anyone can truly believe that this was all random when it is such a constant. My group even discussed how animals do not have the same laws at all, some will even kill their own young for food. We even talked about monkeys and how they will become terribly violent and even disembowel each other without hesitating. Then we discussed a soul and I made the remark that animals do not have a soul, but another group member brought up the question do souls actually exist?  I found this interesting. What is a soul? How do we define it, and is the definition actually true to a soul or something else?

Screwtape Letters

I found this essay very humorous to read. Initially the whole situation seems crazy. However as it is broken down we see the very simple things that could be leading us down a "gradual slope" to Hell. We discussed how trivial the simple decisions in life really are. Are they even simple decisions? One would think that choosing not to drink a can of soda is not something very important, but when you crave that soda and you know you would like to drink it and abstain from it then it is a big deal. Being able to say no to the simple things that tempt you will then put you on the correct path for resisting the big things. We talked about how this comes into play with addiction. We all know that addiction can be a slippery slope that will lead us away from God, our family, and all other things important to us.
   Screw tape explains very easily that he wants us to feel the "dim uneasiness" so that we feel bad, but not bad enough to reform ourselves and repent. He also explains to wormwood that he wants us to keep going to church, but he wants sinful thoughts about how we are better than others to enter our minds. Church is meant to be a place where we are fed spiritually and have fellowship with our Christian friends. However, it seems that church has become just one of the things we do. It has become a chore that we must repeat  every week in order to keep our mother's happy so to speak.
     One of the things that I struggled with coming especially from my area is shame based church. This is very common where I am from because it is a small area where everyone knows everything about you. When someone within the congregation is being treated by a counselor for depression, instead of letting the congregation know that they are struggling and need our support because they are afraid that everyone will cast he/she out. Like professor said there are three types of people within the church, those who will not say anything to you because they think they are above you, those who say they are sorry, but treat you still as if you are below them because of course that would never happen to them, and then there are the few precious souls that actually want to pray with you and share your pain. So often do we forget that we are not individuals in Christ, but his body. To quote casting crowns
" But if we are the body
Why aren't His arms reaching?
Why aren't His hands healing?
Why aren't His words teaching?
And if we are the body
Why aren't His feet going?
Why is His love not showing them there is a way?"
We are suppose to work together to show others as well as those within the body that our fellowship is to help them in their walk with Christ.

Plantinga Chapter 2

This chapter is a good section of the book to read because it awakens a person to the greatness of the beauty of this Earth. God created every tiny detail, and I think we tend to forget that, and that is why for some it is so easy to forget that we are called to be stewards of this Earth.  Something that was said in class yesterday really struck me, the fact that the planet can survive without us, but we cannot survive without the planet. This made me really think. We take so many things away from this Earth, we in fact are destroying it in many ways. Species have become endangered or ceased to exist because of some of the things that we have done. It is just really frustrating that some people take the approach well it was given to us to use so let's use it because when it gets too bad God will come and redeem us anyway. The fact that people actually believe this seems so strange doesn't it? Yes, God gave us the Earth to use for the things we NEED, NOT for foolish indulgence. I think that if I was God and I saw his own images destroying the perfect things he had created, I would not be in any hurry to save them from the havoc they created for themselves. I just feel that we overlook how complex even the most simple things are. Like pollination for example, God created specific creatures ( that we often see as a pest) to go from plant to plant and keep them alive. My favorite I think was actually in this chapter, but isn't it a miracle that when we breath out it is the exact thing a tree needs to stay alive, and then that tree produces oxygen that will keep us alive. We see that as something so simple when it really is the marvelous creation of God. We were put on this Earth to empower not overpower, and  I think we tend to lose sight of that.
     Another quote from the book that was important to me was "...that a thing constructed can only be loved after it is constructed; but a thing created is loved before it exists." How powerful, just to think our parents loved us once they knew that we had been conceived, but God loved us before we were even a thought in our mother's mind. We were loved long before it was even our time to become part of this world, and after the world has long forgotten us God will still love us and we will be singing his eternal praises.
    Another wonderful thing that God calls us to do is be silent. To meditate on his wondrous creation. When this got brought up in class I immediately thought of this small hayfield by my house. I had gone out to it just after the hay had been cut (because it smells wonderful!) and seeds from the cottonwood trees were being blown in the wind and there was not a cloud in the sky. It is the most beautiful thing to see, and so very wonderful. Also, when we meditate on the beauty of this Earth., I seem to get this overwhelming feeling of awe. That I am privileged enough to be a part of these wonderful things, that God thought to create me! I am his own image, and I am called to be like him. I like what was also said in class yesterday, if we would treat our neighbor as precious as our own child, how different our world would be. We need to know that the awe we feel in being God's creation is the same in everyone else. Everyone is the image of God, and they should be an eternal splendor in our lives. We need to treat everyone as a precious life because they are. They too were loved before they even existed, and maybe God put them on this Earth to change our lives. So we need to treat them as Holy because of course, they are. :)
    

The Weight of Glory

"We are half-hearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offer us...we are far too easily pleased." Once again this quote is just stands out so greatly to me. I think that God is laying it on my heart as a reminder that I don't need to get lost in these earthly things because something so much more powerful awaits me. It is important when we have such a big influence telling us what we need to have, and what we should want that we remember God's creation and to think big. Far too often we get caught up thinking our life is coming to an end over something that really has no meaning at all. We find our desires to be too strong, and maybe they are, but for the wrong thing. They are not too strong for God's glory, I don't think that could ever be possible.
       Another topic that was brought up in class is that we need to approach God and his amazing glory not for our own personal gain, but because we feel the power of God calling us for the greater good. We cannot approach God thinking "What am I going to get out of it?" because if we do we will not get anything. "Those who have attained everlasting life in the vision of God doubtless know very well that it is no mere bribe, but the very consummation of their earthly discipleship"
        However, even though we as faithful believers know the great things that await us we often forget the direction our desire should take "These things-the beauty, the memory of our own past- are good images of what we really deisre; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols breaking the heart of their worshippers for they are not the thing itself they are only the scent of a flow we have not found." We have this yearning for things we don't know but we still desire them. So often we know that we desire to go to heaven, but we associate Heaven with Earthly things. We have no idea what Heaven will be like and that is suppose to be one of things that makes it most beautiful. We need to rest assured in the promise God gives us, that Heaven will be perfect.
       Another quote that Lewis puts in his essay is also one of my favorite scriptures "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." This verse makes my heart sing with anticipation. How amazing will it be at the end of our life to hear the creator tell us we have served him well. We have lived our life for him and he is proud of us. I think this is kind of the essence of "The Weight of Glory"  In part of the essay it talks of God's glory being a burden, and that can be easily misinterpreted. To me it means that God has given me the most amazing gift and I did nothing to receive, I actually have done things that should make God turn away from me, we all have. That is why it is so hard to carry because we feel this great love given to us for no reason and it is hard to understand the concept of why God would do that. It is a heavy thing to think about, but that is why it is so magnificent. No matter what you will do in your life, God will love you.

Our English Syllabus

This essay was very helpful in evaluating myself as a college student, as well as what I truly want out of my education. So far at Calvin everything has been about getting the best grades possible, because I need to get into the nursing program. Today in class I realized that not only was I missing so many opportunities but I was also thinking that the nursing program is something that I needed. I now realize that I cam to Calvin to become a better individual, to get everything that I possibly can out of this education. Of course I still want the nursing program, but my life will not cease to be if I do not get in. The lord closes one door in order to put me on the path that he desires. C.S. Lewis states that "Knowledge is the natural food of the human mind." We as human beings have that desire in us to learn, but so often we get distracted by what we think is important when in reality we need to be feeding our minds. As we discussed in class we chose to attend a liberal arts college because we desire a broader base for our education, but "our problem is to find which of theses we can neglect with least violence to the nature of the tree." We trust Calvin as well as our professors to guide us in learning the things that are important, and neglecting the things that may benefit us but will not be as necessary as others.  Also, we are called to go out and discover for ourselves. We are not to be content with just the things that are given to us in the classroom. "Here's your gun, your spade, your fishing tackle: go and get yourself a dinner. Do not tell me that you would sooner have a nice composite menu of dishes from half the world drawn up for you. You are too old for that." We need to be hungry to learn for our own good.

Plantinga Chapter 1

When reading this Chapter I found one quote that was of course by C.S. Lewis that would sum it all up.
      "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."
 It really puts things into perspective. So many of us want to have that relationship with Christ, but it seems as if we done want to give up all the things of this Earth in order to have the pure infinite joy. This chapter of the book came to me while I was in church today. We were studying the book of Ecclesiastes, and the first to chapters of the book seem very depressing. It says that everything we strive for is meaningless. The nice cars, or the big house, the job that offers a lot of money. Working towards those things are like chasing after the wind. It is meaningless. At first when reading this I was very confused, but then our pastor went on to explain that we have things on this Earth that promise to make us happy. He used an example of a doctor who he used to babysit for when he was younger. This doctor always wanted to have a corvette, dreaming of owning it for his whole life. So, he finally had made enough money to by a brand new corvette, and after only owning it for a few months he sold it. Our pastor went and asked him why would he sell this car that he had waited his whole life to have? The doctor simply replied that he bought this corvette, and went out to his garage and simply was said "This is it?" I thought I would feel this great happiness that I had been longing for since I was a child, and I am still waiting for something to happen. Isn't that always how it is? There is always something that we long for, something we think we absolutely need to have, and then when we get it the satisfying feeling is not there. It is as if we are standing there with this new item saying "And?"
    Yet, we fail to realize that with God who is not of this Earth, but created it and all things in it we will not have this empty feeling when we commit our lives to him. We will have this infinite joy that will be like nothing we have ever known. We will  all the sudden forget that we ever wanted that new corvette because our yearning and longing for fulfillment will be complete. We will have ever lasting joy in him.

No Right To Happiness

This was probably one of the easier reads by C.S. Lewis so far in this course. One of the first things that I thought of while reading this essay is that even though woman don't want to admit it, there is a huge difference in the way society looks at us and even the way we look at ourselves compared to our male counterparts. As women we are often seen as weaker, and more dependent when it comes to needing or wanting a spouse. Also, for some reason I feel as if it has been more acceptable for a woman to be cheated on than it is for a woman to cheat. Some may disagree, but usually when a man is cheated on he is supposed to just leave the girl and move on. However, women usually try to forgive and make the relationship work. This is probably to our own stupidity of being afraid of being alone. We receive a very clear sign that a man does not want to be with us, yet we force him to stay and work our the "issues" that caused him to cheat, which we assume is our fault.
   I also find that it is very troubling that we want the same out of each other in a relationship. We want honesty and loyalty. Someone who will love us and listen to our hopes and dreams. Yet, we don't look for that, we allow ourselves to be mistreated or to mistreat others because we think that it will make us "happy" or the other person happy.
   This is where the issue of divorce comes into play. We think that if our spouse is not meeting our needs, it has nothing to do with how we are treating them or circumstances of our relationship. It is their fault so we will divorce them so that we can be happy. Why is it suddenly ok to break the promise of a marriage vow that has been taken most likely in a church before witnesses and before God. Marriage is a covenant that was given to us that is never to be broken, but all of the sudden divorce is the best solution to everything. We are unhappy so instead of telling our spouse we are not happy, seeking counsel, or praying to God to heal our wounds. We get a divorce and ask for all their money because that will make us more happy that our spouse ever could.  In the last paragraph of the text it says "The fatal principle, once allowed in the department, must sooner or later seep through our whole lives." Meaning that if we are willing to break our marriage vows, we are willing to do anything. If we are willing to break a promise we were suppose to fulfill to our death, what makes a person able to say they are trustworthy, or loyal to anything? Even their faith.
  This lead to the discussion of repentance, and even though someone has broken their marriage vows, maybe it taught them a lesson and they repented and found grace by God and really have changed their life. That is fantastic, but one also needs to think about the lives that they have influenced before they repented. Maybe the abusive father has a teenage son who watched his mother get hit, so he believes that it is ok for him to strike his girlfriend. Unless the father goes to the son and tells him of the mistakes that he has made, the cycle will still continue.  Above all else, we need to be committed and right with God. We are human so of course we will make mistakes and we will sin, but it what we do after we have made that mistake that matters. Are we going to continue to live a life that is sinful that makes us "happy", or are we going to repent and live a life for God that will bring us everlasting joy?

Bulverism

Bulverism was a very hard read, it took a lot of thinking for me to understand what C.S. Lewis  was trying to say. I think that he is trying to tell us that we cannot just say something is wrong or incorrect just because we want it to be. It is impossible for every human being to be right all the time. However, it is out nature to want to be right or to believe that we are. However, we are not good at accepting criticism or question of our views. We not longer take the time to listen to one another and to actually hear their point of view. We automatically decide what type of person they are because they have a different view than us. I can help but to think how much we are missing because of this. So many brilliant minds are being dismissed because what they think or believe is not socially acceptable or popular. We need to be aware that we may not have all the evidence so that in fact we might be wrong, and a lot of us tend to get angry or upset when we are wrong instead of being humble and craving to learn from out mistake. Also, most human beings tend to follow those that they trust or admire, instead of thinking for themselves. However everyone has a sinful nature because of the great fall. So we must know that even if someone is a good person and we want to trust their ways, they too are sinful.
 A quote that I found interesting within the text was "You are trying to prove that all proofs are invalid. If you fail, you fail. If you succeed, then  you fail even more- for the proof that all proofs are invalid must be invalid itself" It is very confusing, and I am not sure I even understand the full context of it, but it makes me think what is the point? Why bother trying to prove that something is wrong, because how much can you gain from it? Another concept that we talked about in class that was just incredible to think about was cause and reason and how they go together. Cause is the feeling that we have, just like we said feeling like we have a lot of money. Reason is checking that feeling to be true, so going to the bank to see how much money we actually have. This then ties into the quote about will and reason " Will and Reason cannot depend on anything but themselves, but Nature can depend on Will and Reason, or, in other words, God created Nature." I think is talking about Christ in this quote. God does not depend on us, but we depend on God. If God needed to depend on us then he would not be God of course. He would just be one of us. Overall we need to learn to avoid bulverism by being loving Christians, and we are called as Christians to love everyone as their are, and to guide them in a Christlike manner.

Meditation in the Toolshed

I had to read Meditation in the Toolshed a few times before starting to understand the concept that Lewis was trying to get across. Even when I had thought that I understood the point of our reading the discussion in class proved me wrong. I had simply looked at the reading as C.S. Lewis trying to point out that one can not look at something only objectively nor can a person look at something with pure emotion. There needs to be a balance of both. However, once in class this topic was expanded in many different directions, but the one that appealed to me the most was how we need to be this way with God. We can know everything there is to know about religion and the scripture, but if we do not have a relationship with Christ we can never understand true faith. Also, if one has true faith the have the yearning to learn everything they can about the wonderful and amazing God. It was also brought up that we need to approach our faith like a child, first experiencing all of the joy and awe with our heart, then begining to ask why like and older child would. However looking both at and along something does not always work, it depends on the context of the situation. Also, the danger lies in thinking that we know everything and forgetting to see the whole, not just the aspect we are looking at.