The Magic Never Ends

Lewis says in “Learning In Wartime” that, “Life has never been normal.” Indeed it isn’t. We live in a glorious world that seems magical and is full of things to explore. The magic never ends. I have spent the last three weeks reading works of C.S. Lewis and Engaging God’s World by Cornelius Plantinga. Lewis is one of the greatest apologists of history and perhaps ‘Thee Christian Writer’ of the 20^th Century. Once one believes in God and Christianity there is still so much left to know; how to live, how to act, what laws to follow… As well as defending the faith, Lewis wrote answers to the questions that people have about how to live a Christian life in this world. These past three weeks have benefited me by answering my questions and showing me how I should live and view the world around me. All of the things I have read from Lewis have been extraordinary insightful; I am going to go over my reaction to the collection of what I have read and what it has taught me.

So many topics have been covered in what I’ve read that it’s hard to know where to start, but as I studied Lewis to learn, I am going to start with learning. Lewis describes learning in “Our English Syllabus” by differentiating in from education. Learning goes beyond learning skills and training our minds to where we actually delve into some subject and try to understand it and discover its secrets. Lewis didn’t like the idea of a liberal arts core selected by a college because it simplified a subject to where there was more teaching of certain facts than of actual learning on the part of the student. As a student I often feel like I am just learning certain points that the college thinks I should know rather than exploring a subject. In Philosophy I felt that exploration of how we think about the world. I now see that my choice of Chemistry as a major is probably a good one as that’s an area for which I push myself past my required studies to learn.

I think that learning is linked with passion. Lewis says we need to have a thirst for knowledge and that should be our reason for attending college. Without passion we would have no reason to go beyond what we are required to know. Lewis seems to say that in order to learn we have to be passionate about our subject and learn about all which will help us in this endeavor, not just what somebody says we should know about other subjects.

Lewis says, “We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us…We are far too easily pleased.” We aren’t too passionate but rather not passionate enough. It seems that we have to be more passionate to fulfill our vocational calls. Vocation is a big idea at Calvin College. Lewis says that we don’t just need Christian pastors, but Christian authors, nurses, chemists, lawyers, and so on. The bible teaches that God created and saw that it was good. All goodness is just tainted evil according to Lewis and Plantinga, so the idea of having Christians in all areas is to try and ‘un-taint’ these areas. This is the reformed perspective from which Calvin was created. Calvin is a great institution in that it prepares students for their desired careers so that they may glorify God in that career.

In my Organic Chemistry class we had what were termed “bad science Fridays.” We would discuss poor ethics and poor portrayals of science in an attempt to teach us how to be ethical chemists. In my honors O. Chem. Section we went further into ethics, yet both are still examples of what kind of people Calvin wants its students to be. My parents tell me that Calvin is expensive, but you get what you pay for. This is because regardless of what skills I learn, Calvin is a place to develop a Christian mindset and grow in my faith.

I think sometimes we are being pushed as the next Calvin graduating class to go out and change the world, but I remember a prelude reading stressing that no matter how much we change the world it will change us more. In the closing plenary for DCM the speaker talked on this point and how we are bound to feel like failures. We are never going to accomplish shalom which we are seeking to turn the world into. Becoming disheartened is a serious problem if one seeks to change the world. As children we are sometimes told, “Be the best you that you can be.” Undoubtedly this sounds cheesy, but the speaker seemed to agree. If we try to follow Christ and act as positive influences in our community being good spouses, parents, council members, and employees then we will have made a difference in our world. We may not bring as many people to Christ as Billy Graham, but we will have brought glory to God.

One of the readings that I found most interesting on Lewis was “The Weight of Glory.” Lewis contended that there would certainly be glory in heaven. Glory is seen as God being delighted by us. Here on earth we try to please God with our lives as Christians, but we don’t actually experience God’s reaction to our attempts to please him. Lewis talks about proper goals when writing on education. A proper goal is the consummation of an act, as marriage is the consummation of Eros. We strive to please God and the perfect ending to that would be the discovery that God is pleased by us. It’s the consummation of our lives here on earth.

Here on earth we are also looking for happiness. We are hardwired to seek validation because we want God to be pleased with us; we want to be liked. People often look to be validated physically through sex, or in “The Inner Ring” Lewis talks about how people will do wrong in order to get into a select group of people. We will ultimately find no happiness by these means. These are simply ways by which we attempt to find the validation by which we ultimately need from God, even if one doesn’t believe in him. Lewis’ article “We Have No Right to Happiness’ argues that there is no way we are guaranteed happiness. If we go out of our way to get it we often trample on others. However; if we affirm God in our lives then we will have happiness. In the Garden I think that Adam and Eve were definitely happy because they were with God. We will again be with God in heaven, so happiness will be attained in heaven. If we walk with God here on earth then we can and will have happiness. When I am lacking happiness in my life it’s often because I have an internal issue or am not allowing God to walk with me.

When God is in a person’s life God brings happiness to his follower through the things in their life. One of the most intriguing messages in my last three weeks of reading is that people don’t receive happiness from the things in their life but through them. God’s creation and healthy relationships are two fruitions through which God gives me Joy.

In blogging I have twice mentioned the Discovery Channel “Boom Deh Yah Dah” song. A song created by the network to show how much they love the world, so much that they just want to break into song. The commercial ends with the caption, “The World is Just Awesome,” and I add so is the God that created it. Love of the world and of God is essential the reformed perspective. It is Lewis that said there is no evil only spoiled goodness. That’s this creation goodness that has been contaminated. I have a passion for removing that contamination. I love to hunt, fish, and camp. When outside I feel close to God, he is bringing me happiness through his creation. God created man in his image and set us over creation, that’s an incredible gift. There are sects of Christianity that try and separate themselves from the rest of the world, but there’s an important connection that we must have with the world.

There are many evils out there, but we know it is warfare. The Screwtape Letters brings this out in a way that chills my bones. The idea that the devil is actively trying to drag us on away from God without our knowing is frightening, but it is foolish to ignore this disposition. Passion with the right direction wins this battle and helps others in theirs. That’s the kind of person I want to be. One example given of how Wormwood’s patient is falling from God is that he is embarrassed to lay his sin before God in prayer. I too feel this same way.  There is a certain reluctance I have to name my sins. I feel like I have to win my struggles before I mention them to God when I need him to help me work through them. I want to win my inner battles and be honest to God in prayer and follow the law.

We sometimes fail to live out God’s wishes for us in our relationships with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. When I look back to high school there was a lot of ‘drama.’ Everybody thought of themselves first and in their path was heartache for people all around them. One of my best qualities by the end of high school was that I was a good friend. I liked to please people. I cared about their needs and feelings. I wasn’t always thinking about myself first. What I took away from The Four Loves is that if we do this then God will bless our relationships and bring us happiness through them. These four types of Love are all gifts from God if we live them in the right way.

Lewis’ integration of reason, imagination and faith has helped me to develop a more Christian mindset and remember God’s love. There is something magical about love, something magical about God and his love for us. A love that would save Noah, bless Abraham, and sacrifice a blameless son. The magic never ends.

Our Problem

Lewis goes on about how we view the hardships and suffering in our life. According to Lewis it's necessary so that we can live in community. We won't love pity people if we have never suffered and will then not have compassion for our neighbors. I think Lewis has an interesting point here. This reminds me of the concept previously presented that there can be no evil without good. We don't know really understand joy until we've experienced sorrow.

It seems we need suffering in our lives to teach us lessons and for us to stay on the right track. Lewis talks about how when we are at our low points we often come to God. Then as soon as we are okay we turn our backs. Without suffering maybe we'd have a harder time giving God the wheel so to speak.

Some people say that they can't worship or even believe in a God that allows so much suffering to go on. I've never thought this. I have at times struggled after losing someone. In eighth grade my Grandma and Oma died and I somewhat frustrated, perhaps at God for this suffering. I grew stronger with God though. I see suffering as something that we brought on ourselves. We took the apple from the snake. We are sinners who deserve hell. We go through a little bit of suffering on this earth, but it's nothing compared to what we deserve. God is merciful and it is by his grace alone that we are saved. I am thankful and see any suffering as nothing compared to the undeserved suffering of Christ.

Back at Vocation

Here we are at vocation. Again! Vocation is a big idea here at Calvin College.  It was the conclusion of prelude. It’s the last chapter of Plantinga’s book. It’s the focal point of the reformed perspective. Creation, Fall, Redemption, and now Consummation or Restoration. Christians as followers of Christ are here to aid God in his plan of restoration. Creating shalom here on earth. Anyone in the reformed perspective has heard this countless times. I’ve already said this very thing several times in my blog posts. I am here to be an agent of renewal and the area where I do this is my vocation. As it was put in prelude where the worlds hunger meets my deepest gladness. Plantinga as everybody else points out that this can be in any area of life. Lewis contended and I agree that this needs to be in every area of life, culture, and the world. There needs to be Christian librarians, fireman, newscasters, and athletes. We need children’s books written by Christians (Narnia Books!). This restoration effort must consume every corner of creation so that as Plantinga discusses”Thy Kingdom Come.”

Plantinga brings to my attention the need for passion. This vocation is one of passion. That’s why it is where your great gladness meets the worlds hunger. In order to truly change this world we have to be passionate about this mission. We have to be passionate about creation as I have discussed (Recall the discovery channel song). Without passion we don’t convince the non Christians around us. We aren’t really helping the cause. I’m not sure that I have enough passion in my own life. We are taught vocation as what we are going to go out and do with our Calvin College degree, but in actuality we all chose to come here and have a mission of restoring student life. We were asked in Prelude how can we find a way to study that is pleasing to God? How can we find a way to party that is pleasing to God? We are in a vocation of our choice right now.  College is ours to transform. We can be better study partners, better listeners of our hard working professors, and better people to live with. Let’s serve our vocational calling today.

Man or Rabbit

Man or Rabbit is a Lewis work that I enjoyed thoroughly as it sparked the interest of many ongoing debates in my head.  The question that is the grounds for the article is, “Can someone live a good life without believing in Christianity?” I’ve been in arguments with many of my peers over the years because my instant answer has always been no. I think that Ghandi did some swell things, but would I say that he lived a good life. No, he was out doing good things in the name of a different religion. He wasn’t doing evil, but I wouldn’t say he lived a good life. Now I’m not sure that I am right here, but I do think that following the law of a different religion is not admirable even if it coincides with some Christian Law. Earlier today I went to see Cal Ripken Jr. talk and he said that you have to have not just motivation but the right motivation. I see followers of other religions or no religion as doing good but for the wrong motivations. When this is the case I think people often burn out.

Lewis says that if Christianity is true than it will affect the ability of a person to live their life if they know the knowledge. I think that it helps to motivate people. Christianity offers a full life of happiness in the Joy of one’s salvation.

I try not to be quick to address this question and I don’t think Lewis does either. The interesting question to me is if someone has never heard of God can they still enter the kingdom. In the last battle there is a character who is redeemed because he followed his God in a way that was pleasing to Aslan. I think Lewis says that it’s possible, but he doesn’t know.

I liked how Lewis pointed out that someone who had ruled Christianity out as false wouldn’t ask this question and obviously someone who had never heard of Christ wouldn’t either. It’s those on the doorstep who aren’t sure whether to follow or not and those who are losing interest in the church. But what I see is a person who does want to do good and live a good life. If this is the case then I think Christianity is the obvious choice. I think of people leaving the church for temptation and not for good. I’m not sure how to help people through this question.

Thankfully we have Lewis.

The Inner Circle

I found The Inner Ring to be fairly difficult to read through, but from what I gathered Lewis talks about social circles. An inner ring is simply an exclusive clique. He is expounding off a book on the matter, so I felt that it hindered me having never read this book. However; having just exited high school and still being a teenager, I am all too familiar with cliques. As Lewis described how one didn’t necessarily know whether or not they were in a clique when they were on the outside, I was reminded of my high school experience. Early on in high school everybody is struggling for acceptance. I remember it being hard to know exactly when you knew you were “in” with that new group of friends.

When you’re on the outside of that ring and want to be on the inside it is foolish to speak of the inner ring, Lewis is right about this. I recall my junior year something very strange happened in my high school. Many people started forming actual named cliques. BHBT (Bros Hoes Beers and Tobacco) and Crew 2 to be specific. A couple of my best friends were in Crew 2 and I remember thinking how foolish it was. People would even talk to me about starting a named clique, but I was in agreement with Lewis that there is something unhealthy about all these circles. I kept on hanging out with my friends and all of Crew 2 despite not being part of it. This made it seem even sillier to me, but I do recall that I never it to them or asked if I was in it. I think deep down maybe I did want to be in this inner circle, even if I disliked this idea.

In discussion I came across the question of whether or not there will be circles in heaven. The fact that there will be a resurrection of the body makes me think that heaven will be more like now than we think, more of a perfected earth. We all have lost loved ones that we wish to see in heaven and surely that would be a circle. I think that all of the turmoil and emotional pain will go away, but I think that social circles are tainted goodness. Lewis gave this as the definition for evil. They will just be restored to their proper place in heaven.

Eros

I found Lewis’ chapter on Eros in The Four Loves to be fascinating, offering new concepts and ideas to me. Eros is the love shared by lovers. Lewis starts by distinguishing this from the sexual desire that a man and a woman have for each other. Lewis points out that we are wrong when we say a man prowling the streets hoping to get laid wants a woman. He wants sex, for which he needs a woman. He has no use for her once he is done. Lewis says, “Sexual desire, without Eros, wants it, the thing in itself; Eros wants the Beloved.”

            People sometimes say that sex without Eros is wrong, but Lewis discusses how in history very seldom have marriages been built on Eros. Arranged marriages even from a young age have been more the case. There was nothing unwholesome about many of those good Christian unions. It has made me think that Eros as a necessity for marriage is more of a modern concept. We think that we have to be head over heels in love with a person to join with them in holy matrimony.

            So most of us single Christian college students are looking in our lives for Eros and eventually a spouse. We described the ideal male and ideal female lover on the board. For a woman caring, honesty, beauty, self-confidence, and adventurous were a few that made the board. In being sexually desired beauty is perhaps the only one of those qualities that is necessary or even looked at. Lewis says that very rarely does sex occur and then Eros comes into play. In my thoughts I’m extending this to if a man first sexually desires a woman, is it likely that he later feels Eros for her? I’m not sure I’m ready to answer that question, but I think it is less likely if he first desires her sexually. Sex is a funny thing; it can even come to control us. I’ve seen people who become so obsessive over chasing sexual pleasure that they no longer search for or seem to care about Eros. I think that a woman who is more beautiful can sometimes have a harder time having men feel Eros for her as they may first be sexually attracted to her.

            In order for people to feel Eros towards us, I think we have to exhibit the traits of these ideal lovers described. People today work very hard at looking as good as possible, but we also have to find ways to convey that we are caring, honest, strong… It is by conveying emotional depth and that we can carry a lover through the rough patches in our lives that they fall in love with our personalities.

           It isn’t even a choice to “fall in love.” There is a choice made down the road to “be in love.” I think this puts the choice more on the person who is being fallen in love with. If one shows that they have these characteristics they can almost make someone fall in love with them. Whether or not this lasts is another story.

Redemption

Upon reading this fourth chapter of Plantiga's book, I found that I am beginning to like the style of Plantinga. He tells history and puts in theology, explanations, and instructions for living a Christian life along the way. As he went through the early creation and years of man, I thought most hard about the part when God chose Abraham to be his chosen people. There’s something amazing about a God who wants to redeem and will do it through us if we are faithful. Abraham was faithful to God, so God chose him, still a sinner, to be the line through which He would save the world. This wasn’t the first time God did something like this. Before the world had been very sinful, but God saw one good man and chose to save him and his family when he destroyed the rest of the world with a flood. It is beautiful to me to serve a God that would save even if only one person on the entire earth was worth saving. It shows that he really cares about us. Many people think the flood story is a scary story of an angry God, but I see it as a story of the Love God has for those who are faithful to him.

Sidepoint: In class we briefly talked about whether or not it is good for animals to eat eachother as the lion will lay down with the lamb in shalom, but I think that the fact that the animals made the ark proves that there is goodness in them.

Here is a quote that I found interesting from Plantinga; “Ten Commandments, a set of requirements that people have to fulfill not in order to get rescued by God from slavery, but because they have been rescued.” I think that’s the best way to look at law. We can’t earn our salvation; we keep in accordance with God’s law as a response to our salvation. We have been redeemed and can no longer live in our sinful ways. There is a better life following Christ that we are now bound to follow.