How was your vacation?
An alternate post title could be "What am I interested in glorifying?" Of course the easy answer to this question is "great" or "short" or "can't wait to go back" or "I need a vacation from my vacation" etc. I have lived long enough to know that there are only so many responses to the question that people are interested in hearing as they pass me in the hall on the way to a meeting or to refill their coffee. It is so easy for me to be enamored with the gifts that have been given to me and so difficult to get behind the gifts to the Giver. I find this in my relationships with the ones who love me as well.
I just finished reading "The Four Loves" by C.S. Lewis and he mentioned something very interesting about the love of friendship that I think applies here. He noticed that when friends serve one another it is almost embarrassing to mention it. When a friend says "It was nothing" or "Don't mention it" in response to a thanks offered by one of their friends they really want that friend to bury the fact that they have served them. Not because they do not want anyone to know, but Lewis surmises that it is because the friendship is built on something much more profound than the act of service. The act of service is built on top of the foundation. Thankfully it is not like that with God - and it is for my good that it isn't.
God wants me to thank Him and to not glory in His gifts, but to glory in Him. It would be to my detriment to bask in the warmth of the sun rather than the warmth of the One who kindled it and sustains it. It would be to my destruction to hold up the time that I had as the source of my blessings. More than illogical and irrational (how could a purely physical object bless?) it is idolatrous.
So what of it? I think that, for me, to say that I am thankful for the time is a cop out. To say that I was incredibly blessed is getting there. To say that God blessed me beyond what I deserve is what I should say because it gives a glimmer of the Gospel. God sought me and bought me and He seeks to bless me. Why does He still seek me?
I just finished reading "The Four Loves" by C.S. Lewis and he mentioned something very interesting about the love of friendship that I think applies here. He noticed that when friends serve one another it is almost embarrassing to mention it. When a friend says "It was nothing" or "Don't mention it" in response to a thanks offered by one of their friends they really want that friend to bury the fact that they have served them. Not because they do not want anyone to know, but Lewis surmises that it is because the friendship is built on something much more profound than the act of service. The act of service is built on top of the foundation. Thankfully it is not like that with God - and it is for my good that it isn't.
God wants me to thank Him and to not glory in His gifts, but to glory in Him. It would be to my detriment to bask in the warmth of the sun rather than the warmth of the One who kindled it and sustains it. It would be to my destruction to hold up the time that I had as the source of my blessings. More than illogical and irrational (how could a purely physical object bless?) it is idolatrous.
So what of it? I think that, for me, to say that I am thankful for the time is a cop out. To say that I was incredibly blessed is getting there. To say that God blessed me beyond what I deserve is what I should say because it gives a glimmer of the Gospel. God sought me and bought me and He seeks to bless me. Why does He still seek me?
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