Planting starts out his first chapter by talking about the joy, hopes, and desires that we experiance in this earthly life. He gives several examples including nature and especially music that have the ability to bring on a feeling of yearning by expressing such beauty that we don't know how to feel it all. Sadly, while we are on this earth, some of the desires we feel are sinful desires. C.S. Lewis addresses this when he says that our earthly desires are not too strong, but too weak. What he means is that we are settling to be satisfied with what this earth has to offer, even though it is a hundred times outweighed by the beauty of heaven and the glory of God. He gives the example of a child playing in the mud who is unwilling to leave it for a trip to the beach, because he has no idea of how wonderful the beach will be. Lewis also had another quote which I think fits perfectly with what Plantinga is trying to say. This quote was shown in class the other day, and I do not remember all of it, but towards the end, it said that God gives us happiness in our lives like pleasent inns along our journey, but he will not allow us to mistake them for our true home. We need to remember this when we face the temptation to let ourselves be distracted with earthly desires. The one thing truly worth longing for awaits us at the end of our earthly pilgrimage.
Plantinga realizes that during this earthly life, we will never be completely fulfilled. Although we may be content with our lives, even full of joy, there is still a longing for something which we do not have yet. Also, durring our lives on earth we face the problem of our own sin, which gets in the way of complete happiness, and we face the consequences of sin on creation- death, disease, pain. These are discouraging, but they serve as reminders that we are only passing through. They turn our hearts towards God in the knowledge that one day we will be with him where there is no more death or sorrow or crying. This is the true home we long for.
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I agree. I wonder how you can apply this to your life. Looking specifically at the C.S. Lewis quote that we heard in class. We have some inns along the way, but we must not mistake them as our homes. How do you think we can make sure that these inns are not replaced as homes?
ReplyDeleteI think the answer to that is found within the quote. God will not let us. I see this practically in especially two ways. First of all, I do not believe that their is true and complete joy outside of God. There are times in our lives when we get caught up in ourselves and our own pleasure and begin to let God slip out of the picture. But once we start to lose sight of God, our happines can no longer be complete. We will start to feel an emptiness inside that can only be satisfied by turning back to him. Secondly, I think the trials of this life help us to keep our eyes looking heavenward. God places trials in our earthly lives that are sometimes VERY difficult to face. In such times, we draw closer to God, for he is our comfort and our assurance. When earthly love fails, his love is there. When we lose the material possesions and priviledges of this life, we are able to realize that our true treasure is in heaven.
ReplyDeleteThroughout our life here on earth, there will be times when the 'pleasant inns' start to look pretty good to us. Although we have the confidence that eventually, God will turn our eyes back towards himself again, there is one thing that we can do to remind ourselves that the plesant inns are only a stop along our way. That is to pray. If we are in the habit of praying daily to God,our eyes will not stray very far from them. In times when we do start to make this earth our home, we will more quickly feel his absence from our lives. Also, if we make prayer a regular part of our lives, then when we endure times of trial, we will feel like we are coming to God as our close friend rather than as our last resort.
Thank you for your post. I hope this answers your question :)