The main question that C.S. Lewis asks in this book is why did God allow there to be pain and suffering to this world? If God knows everything and loves everyone why does He let us suffer? These are very hard questions to answer but C.S. Lewis tackles them as best he can. Yet again C.S. Lewis tries to give is advice on a lot of information we already know. He just brings new light to it. A part that really caught my attention in the chapter that we read was "all that is given to a creature with free will must be two-edged, not by the nature of the giver or of the gift, but by the nature of the recipient." In this idea it seems that Lewis is saying that in order for us to know peace we need to have suffering. This leads me to the questions would our world be dull without conflicts? What would we do if there were never any problems to solve? Wouldn't we get bored? These are questions that I have thought about before reading this chapter of Lewis' book. I know that after the second coming there will be no pain or suffering and that we will not be bored because we will be completely satisfied with just being with Jesus for eternity.
All this makes me think about my times of trouble, heartbreak, and tragic losses I have gone through and we have all gone through. It makes me think how I found myself needing God more than ever in those situations. When I was going through something hard the first thing I would do would be to ask why? And I didn’t ask a person why, I ask God why? I do not think that tragedies, pain or suffering are good things by any means. I do know though that we grow closer to God in those hard times. I think that if the world was the way it is now but without pain and suffering and everything was easy, would we need God? Would we go to God? Or would we get along by ourselves and just go with the flow of life because it was easy and nothing ever went wrong.
As humans we do not always depend on God but as Christian humans we should always go to God with our joys and our sufferings. Lewis reminded me of this during the reading and I know that I do not always thank God during the good times and I do not always ask for His help during the bad. After reading Lewis’ book I am reminded to do that. This was the last reading for the interim and I think it was very appropriately put here. We all need reminders about how to live our lives as Christians. We all need to go to God with everything everyday.
Abi, You raise a good point when you say how you think that if the world had no pain, we probably wouldn't want God. It is like what Lewis said when he said that "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world." Most often for me, pain is when I am so willing to surrender my life to Him and actually find peace in the midst of a storm. Thank you for sharing your thougts! I have enjoyed reading your blog posts!
ReplyDeleteWell put! You thought of no pain and suffering really got me thinking. Are we better people because of the fact that we live in a world with problems? Does this bring out the best in us? I have always tended to think that every problem was inherently evil (especially math problems), but without any problems, this world could very well be extremely boring. Good points!
ReplyDeleteI liked how you said "as Christian humans we should always go to God with our joys and our sufferings". The word 'and' stood out to me. So many times I only fall to my knees when I'm suffering or need God to fix one of my problems. But what about during the happy/easy times in life? It so easy to get caught up and forget completely about who made those good times possible. Why is it so hard for us to go to God during the happy parts of life?
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