for sissies, y\u2019all. The idea is to read 100 books in a year. That\u2019s basically two books per week, save for the weeks of Thanksgiving and Christmas. What I\u2019m trying to say is that I\u2019ve likely set myself up for failure. Will I get to 100? I doubt it. Will I try? Absolutely. And in the process, I\u2019ll have spent much more time with my nose in an actual book than with my face illuminated by Facebook and Google \u2014 my personal addictions. <\/span><\/p>\nAt the end of 2018, I will feel more holy than ever, no doubt.<\/p>\n
I <\/span>will. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\nAs long as I don\u2019t read trash.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t think a single C.S. Lewis work could be considered trash. So when I was organizing some books in the basement just after Christmas, and came across two, count \u2018em, two<\/em> copies of <\/span>The Great Divorce<\/span><\/i>, I said to myself, \u201cSelf, you need to get to reading Lewis. Shame on you for never having read an entire book of his.\u201d Granted, I have the Narnia series on my reading list, but that is for later in 2018. Around Christmas.<\/span><\/p>\nSo come 12:02 a.m., 2018, I cracked open <\/span>The Great Divorce.<\/span><\/i> By the end of the first chapter, I nearly put it down. My reading time is limited, see, yet I have 100 to read by this time next year. If you don\u2019t pull me in within the first few paragraphs, I\u2019m likely to not give you the time of day. But it was Lewis. So I told myself I must wade through. It was bound to be a five star-er. It would edify me. Make me think. Entertain me. Little did I know it would also frustrate me. Confused me. And generally make me want to scream profanities into my pillow.<\/span><\/p>\nI\u2019m sorry. I know I am a Christian, and the rule is that Christians love and adore C.S. Lewis. I have a feeling I will be an outstanding Christian when it comes to reading the Narnia books. But though I pushed myself beyond chapter one, and even beyond chapter two, <\/span>The Great Divorce <\/span><\/i>continued to befuddle me.<\/span><\/p>\nChapter one thoughts<\/strong>: Okay, we are on a bus from Hell to Heaven and nobody really likes one another and everyone is sort of out for their own purposes. Sounds like earth. Oops, I mean Hell. But we\u2019re leaving Hell and going to Heaven, so things will get better. Keep reading, girl. <\/span><\/p>\nChapter two (or thereabouts) thoughts<\/strong>: off the bus. But \u2026 not really in Heaven?\u00a0Why is the grass so prickly? I don\u2019t get it. People, dead people who are now ghosts, are deciding whether they want to go to Heaven, now that they\u2019ve experienced Hell. Hmm. I think I know some verses that contradict the possibility of that ever happening.<\/p>\nAngel on Brenda\u2019s shoulder: It\u2019s fiction, Brenda. Sheesh. Lose your grip on reality, and go forth. Read. Don\u2019t pick it apart. Just enjoy it.<\/em><\/p>\nDevil on Brenda\u2019s shoulder: But it\u2019s C.S. Lewis. Isn\u2019t he a great theological thinker?<\/em><\/p>\nAngel on Brenda\u2019s shoulder: Shhh, child. Read.<\/em><\/p>\nBrenda:\u00a0Okay, okay. I\u2019m reading.<\/em><\/p>\nChapter three to almost the end:<\/strong> Weird, out of this world events take place. The ghost of a murderer comes on the scene, and eventually chooses Hell. A mother who is bitter at God for taking her son from her too early on earth also chooses Hell, for she will not believe in a God of anything but love, and love to her is to have her son. She\u2019s idolized him on earth and in Hell. But if she can see it God\u2019s way, she\u2019s still welcome in Heaven (or so I gathered). She can\u2019t. Because (in my mind), she\u2019s stupid, which is the only thing bitterness accomplishes for anyone. It makes them mad in every sense of the word.<\/p>\nWell, I liked that story. I could identify with bitterness and the difficulty of letting it go. Of letting God be God, even if His definition of love doesn\u2019t match up with mine. It\u2019s my definition that is messed up, not His, and if I can align my thoughts with His, agreement can be reached. Not necessarily understanding, but agreement and peace.<\/p>\n
There was also a wife who nagged and belittled her husband to literal death on earth, and when she made a trip to Heaven, what did she want? Her husband! For surely, the pecked-to-death man was dashing about the place being entirely too free and unrestrained, which clearly always made him into a ridiculous person with frivolous desires. Even in the afterlife, a guy like him needed a wife like her. This woman kinda made me gag. I\u2019ve seen it before, in action. It\u2019s ugly. It\u2019s haughty. And it\u2019s wrong. I found myself wishing the same thing about her that I\u2019ve wished about other \u201cdripping\u201d wives: that I could be rid of her, even if it meant living on the rooftop in subzero temps in nothing but flip flops. Of course, if I was truly loving, like the ghost of the wife who had been married to an unsaved man was, I wouldn\u2019t have thought any such thing.<\/p>\n
Near the end thoughts<\/strong>: Though confused about much of C.S. Lewis\u2019 imagery, I think I got a good chunk of the basic message, which was as follows:<\/p>\nFirst<\/strong>, consider whether you, having gone to Hell, would ever choose Heaven, given the chance (which I believe you\u2019ll never have once you\u2019ve reached Hell, but hey \u2014 it\u2019s fiction!) What does it take for one to choose right? To choose the narrow road to Heaven, when most are on the wide road to Hell? I became more convinced that without the power of God, without His choosing me before the foundations of the earth, my own salvation never would have taken place. And I think in <\/span>The Great Divorce,<\/span><\/i> that truth remained. Salvation is a gift. It\u2019s God having mercy on whomever He wills, but on the flip side, it\u2019s also Him hardening whomever He wills. (Rom. 9)<\/span><\/p>\nSecond<\/strong>, think about the afterlife more. After all, you\u2019re not meant for this place we call earth. This place burdened with time and evil, sin and death. You were meant for another world. What do you imagine it to be? Why will it be better? Or, worse? Will we arrive as ghosts, and get our bodies later? Will the roads really be gold? The gates pearly? What will we do to pass the time that will no longer be? Will we be focused on anything, other than Christ? <\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\nI have long since stopped trying to figure out what my \u201cmansion\u201d will be like, who is going to be there, what I will do to pass the days, and whether there will be days and nights, or just days. To me, the Christian life is about knowing and following Christ. Not about acquiring riches, health, or even the American dream. But it\u2019s easy to strictly wonder about the food and lodging and healthcare in Heaven, since that\u2019s what is so concerning here. It makes more sense that we will not be so concerned with the necessary elements of the physical life, and instead be deeply, deeply enthralled and satisfied with our every spiritual and emotional need finally being met. <\/span><\/p>\nI think it\u2019s unhealthy, if you\u2019re going to dream about the afterlife, to hone in on the materialistic. Sure, there will be materials. We will be able to walk on beautiful roads and smudge pearly gate posts with our fingerprints, probably, maybe (will we have fingerprints?). And healthcare will be non-existent, which, after enduring painful IV pokes and hours of driving and migraine headaches this week, I feel oh so grateful about. But we need to go deeper than the mere touchable in what we dream about. There will be fine things. But the finest of all we see and experience will be Jesus. It will be dining and talking with Him, and seeing the nail-scarred hands that mean quite literally everything. Besides, every material blessing, I\u2019m betting, will be given right back to Him. For our stingy-ness will be gone. Our self will be conquered. And our gratefulness will have increased more than a thousand fold. In response to that, won\u2019t we finally relinquish everything to Him?<\/p>\n
Though I\u2019m still a mite confused about the meaning and purpose of <\/span>The Great Divorce<\/span><\/i>, it turns out Clive Staples Lewis got my mind churning after all. Maybe he left enough mystery in the story just for that \u2014 so the reader would have room for personal opinions, thoughts, and considerations. Rather sneaky of him, really. But I will still hold to my opinion that if once you\u2019re dead and gone, someone must write an explanation on the meaning of your book (I hear there\u2019s one out there), perhaps you need to be more clear.<\/span><\/p>\nBecause of that opinion, when I get to Heaven, I bet Clive and I have words.<\/p>\n
Hope I can get past his British accent, and he my redneck speak.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019ve completed my first book in the 2018 Book Reading Challenge. The challenge is not \u2014 I repeat \u2014 not for sissies, y\u2019all. The idea is to read 100 books in a year. That\u2019s basically two books per week, save for the weeks of Thanksgiving and Christmas. What I\u2019m trying to say is that I\u2019ve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2920,"featured_media":979,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[313,278,314,86,85,22,315],"class_list":["post-1535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-2018-book-challenge","tag-books","tag-c-s-lewis","tag-heaven","tag-hell","tag-reading","tag-the-great-divorce"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/p>\n