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God has placed eternity in the hearts of his creatures. (Ecc.3:11) Earth is merely a prelude for what is to follow. But earth gives us glimpses, scents, hints that heighten our longing for the eternal, and awaken joy, however fleeting.
Recent Entries
Making Sense Of It AllJanuary 30, 2012
Where are things headed? Is there rhyme and reason to the endless cycle of summer, fall, winter and spring? Is there a plan in place, or is randomness the explanation?
Suffering Saints
January 25, 2012
We get nervous thinking about it - suffering for the sake of Christ. How necessary is it, and what does it produce in us?
George Herbert on Prayer Meetings
January 21, 2012
Prayer Meetings are a thing of the past. Or so it seems. What has been lost? Maybe more than we realize.
When Fear Is Good
January 7, 2012
NO FEAR, we are told. And the point is well taken. But fear can be healthy, at least when it comes to eternal matters.
Happy, Happy, Happy
January 4, 2012
The declaration of independence holds up the pursuit of happiness as a right. Did you ever consider the reading the bible might be the one source that will never let you down?
The Twelve Signs Of Grace
December 22, 2011
Self-examination is not easy to do. The tendency is to let ourselves off easy. But examine we must, for eternity is at stake.
"Ouch!!"
July 22, 2011
Spiritual pride is hard to detect. Jonathan Edwards gives some tips. The process can be painful, but necessary.
Strange Bedfellows: Longing and Joy
December 26, 2008
O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you in a dry and weary land where there is no water. I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. Psalm 63:1-3
C. S. Lewis in "Surprised By Joy" wrote about his theory of joy, which he also called longing, desire or nostalgia. His theory holds that "human beings are conscious of a desire or longing that no natural happiness will satisfy."
Joy, then, is the fleeting, sweetly painful experience of longing for divine or numinous beauty - an elusive experience which often departs as quickly as it arrives. These longings are often evoked by nostalgic memories, encounters with nature, or certain books or music.
Kenneth MaCrae was a Scottish Presbyterian (is that redundant?) in the first half of the 20th Century, and in his journal describes a sunset he witnessed one particular day...
Monday, 3 November: Kilmuir
"In afternoon walked across to Staffin through the hill. The day was perfect and the scene, looking back from near the top of the Bealach in the light of the dying day, was perhaps the most exquisite ever I have looked upon. The sky was bright, almost flashing, with cloudlets of brilliant hues, the mountains black, sharply outlined against the sky, and the moor before me shadowy with the gloom of coming night."
"As I stood there, not a soul broke the stillness, not a bird cried, not a breath of wind ruffled through the silence. Nature herself seemed to be holding her breath at the beauty of the sight. I wished that by some means I might have been able to take away a reproduction of the picture to show the world, but I had to leave it behind me in the loneliness of the wilderness until night came and blotted it out." DIARY OF KENNETH MACRAE, page 157-8
MaCrae witnessed for a moment something transcendent, which he longed to capture, to put in a bottle a fleeting glory. But it came and went, heightening his longing for a time when there is no more night, as he got a whiff of an endless day. And in that moment, joy and longing held hands.
C.S. Lewis says that moments like what is described above are "not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited." Hopefully, these experiences will keep us seeking something more, like "some vague picnicker's hankering for a "better place."
Earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Psalm 73:25-26
C. S. Lewis in "Surprised By Joy" wrote about his theory of joy, which he also called longing, desire or nostalgia. His theory holds that "human beings are conscious of a desire or longing that no natural happiness will satisfy."
Joy, then, is the fleeting, sweetly painful experience of longing for divine or numinous beauty - an elusive experience which often departs as quickly as it arrives. These longings are often evoked by nostalgic memories, encounters with nature, or certain books or music.
Kenneth MaCrae was a Scottish Presbyterian (is that redundant?) in the first half of the 20th Century, and in his journal describes a sunset he witnessed one particular day...
Monday, 3 November: Kilmuir
"In afternoon walked across to Staffin through the hill. The day was perfect and the scene, looking back from near the top of the Bealach in the light of the dying day, was perhaps the most exquisite ever I have looked upon. The sky was bright, almost flashing, with cloudlets of brilliant hues, the mountains black, sharply outlined against the sky, and the moor before me shadowy with the gloom of coming night."
"As I stood there, not a soul broke the stillness, not a bird cried, not a breath of wind ruffled through the silence. Nature herself seemed to be holding her breath at the beauty of the sight. I wished that by some means I might have been able to take away a reproduction of the picture to show the world, but I had to leave it behind me in the loneliness of the wilderness until night came and blotted it out." DIARY OF KENNETH MACRAE, page 157-8
MaCrae witnessed for a moment something transcendent, which he longed to capture, to put in a bottle a fleeting glory. But it came and went, heightening his longing for a time when there is no more night, as he got a whiff of an endless day. And in that moment, joy and longing held hands.
C.S. Lewis says that moments like what is described above are "not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited." Hopefully, these experiences will keep us seeking something more, like "some vague picnicker's hankering for a "better place."
Earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Psalm 73:25-26
