Today's Food For Thought

[dbiker2]

Food For Thought

From Act One of SHADOWLANDS by William Nicholson
This is from an opening lecture. The play then unfolds with what results in a changed Lewis, one who has suffered and become a different person in the process, from a hard, cynical intellectual to one who has loved and been loved by a woman who died of cancer.

Here I 'm going to say something which may come as a bit of a shock. I think that God doesn't necessarily want us to be happy. He wants us to be lovable. Worthy of love. Able to be loved by Him. We don't start off being all that lovable, if we're honest. What makes people hard to love? Isn't it what is commonly called selfishness? Selfish people are hard to love because so little love comes out of them. God creates us free, free to be selfish, but He adds a mechanism that will penetrate our selfishness and wake us up to the presence of others in the world, and that mechanism is called suffering. To put it in another way, pain is God's megaphone to rouse a deaf world. Why must it be pain? Why can't He wake us more gently, with violins or laughter? Because the dream from which we must be awakened is the dream that all is well. Now that is the most dangerous illusion of them all. Self-sufficiency is the enemy of salvation. If you are self-sufficient, you have no need of God. If you have no need of God, you do not seek Him. If you do not seek Him, you will not find Him. God loves us, so He makes us the gift of suffering. Through suffering, we release our hold on the toys of this world, and know our true good lies in another world. We're like blocks of stone, out of which the sculptor carves the forms of men. The blows of His chisel, which hurt us so much, are what make us perfect. The suffering in the world is not the failure of God's love for us; it is that love in action. For believe me, this world that seems to us so substantial is no more than the shadowlands. Real life has not begun yet."



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Darrell

[Carole]

Thanks Darrell-
This was worthy of a print-out hard copy to be tacked on the mirror and read every morning or night or whenever I need some "answers."
Carole

[Bruce]

Darrell, I usually don't comment your type of post, but I can relate to your comments about suffering. I am not seeking sympathy, because I don't feel the need for it.

My feeling is what ever has happened to me in the past, has toughened me up. I am facing two major surgeries the last one a knee replacement, yet I am calm and serene and don't sit and worry about any of it.

Last night my sister called me and said she was going to have knee replacement as soon as possible. As she started going into detail about everything she would endure, I was sure she was scared to death. It's not a crime to be afraid, but I tried to make her understand how I was able to cope with it and she wouldn't listen, so I failed. I realized I could never convince her that her fear could be self distructive, but we all are diferent in how we respond to a tough situation.

I just discovered I can play CD's and use the pc at the same time. The song is "Hey Jude" by the Beatles. This is fun. Bruce

[LiceN]

Darrell,your post certainly contained much "food for thought"......really "indepth thinking"....Bruce,liked your Beatle song, too. Betty D.

[Carole]

Bruce-
Did you get the Beatles #1, new CD?? I just love it!!
"The Long and Winding Road" always brings my PD friends here to mind; I'm sure our paths have crossed for a reason.
Another good CD I just got (an Oprah favorite) is George Winston's "December." (piano solos)
Music is SO good for the soul - the soul's food.
CC