Sunday, October 3, 2010

not my will, but THINE

“They wanted, as we say, ‘to call their souls their own’. But that means to live a lie, for our souls are not, in fact, our own” (Problem of Pain). Can I please just say I love how C.S. Lewis writes? This description (maybe even supposition) of the fall really resonated with me. Sin at its most basic level is humans pursuing their desires instead of pursuing God. “They wanted to be nouns, but they were, and eternally must be, mere adjectives” (Problem of Pain). Though I’ve grown up in the church, I guess I’ve never had sin and the fall explained to me in that way, that sin is a distortion of the purpose for which God created us.

Right now I’m also taking English Renaissance Literature and one of the pieces we covered recently is the play Dr. Faustus. Sin there, too, is a distortion of what was meant to be good. Faustus seeks knowledge, wisdom, and understanding, which of themselves are not evil. But he does so for utterly selfish motivations. Similarly Adam and Eve ate of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil, because they desired to be like God, instead of serving him. And now to undo what they did, we must surrender ourselves, and our desires to God.

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