integrative paper!

Hye Young Ahn

Prof. Ribeiro

DCM

2011/01/25

In the beginning, God created the world and everything was good.  When sin entered the world, we became sinful and fallen creatures. God then sent His one and only son, so that we could be redeemed. If we only believed in Him, then we could be saved. This is the typical story that I had heard throughout my entire life at Sunday school, church youth group, school Bible studies, and mandatory chapels. Developing Christian Mind was like one of those school Bible classes that I had. Although it was just a class for me, I cannot deny the fact that I learned, and that a lot of the topics that we talked about in class made me think a lot.

Engaging God’s World was the book that we all had to read for this class. There were some interesting points in this book. Yet, it was just another book related to Christianity. I had been to Christian school for almost all my life and I had to read many similar books related to Christianity in all the Bible classes I had. Engaging God’s World was one of those books that I had to read for a class. I do admit though that reading this book along with the articles of C.S. Lewis and writing about them in our blogs was much more interesting than just reading the book.

Everyone desires something and longs for something. In most cases, people tend to long for earthly stuffs. We long for our own health, money, wealth, etc., because we are stupid. We don’t realize that what God offers us is so much better than what the world offers us. And as for me, I am one of the stupidest people ever. In one of the articles we read – The Weight of Glory, C.S. Lewis mentions that

 “Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are too easily pleased.”

I read this and I thought that I should not be like that ignorant child having fun in a slum when I could go have fun at the sea. I would say that every single day I should do my best to glorify the name of the Lord. I would say that I have to long for something good and shape my future based on what God wants me to do. Center all my hopes on Jesus Christ and let the Holy Spirit guide me. I would say that a lot, but my acts wouldn’t show that. Even after saying that, nothing changed in my life. I was still doing whatever I want, not what God wants. I was still longing for the earthly pleasures.

            I wondered why is it so hard for me to do what God wants me to do. Why is it so hard to do what is good for me? This then made me think that I was really a sinful creature. Sin has shadowed God's good creation. Sin has corrupted me and separated me from God. I would think that I should live longing for God and not for the earthly pleasures. However, it is so hard for me to even live one day doing only what God wants me to do because I am a fallen creature. I would say that I am a Christian and go to church, but many times I would realize that I was not growing spiritually. I was like that Patient of the Screwtape Letters in Letter XII. “As long as he retains externally the habits of a Chrisitan he can still be made to think of himself as one who has adopted a few new friends and amusements but whose spiritual state is much the same as it was six weeks ago.”

            I would see my sinful self, and realize that I do really need a Savior. Then, I would remember that Jesus Christ had come to give His life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45). “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16. I would remember this verse and feel better. I knew that I still had hope. I would then think that I should just rely on God who is good and holy instead of wondering around the sinful world as I was doing before. I knew that “the idea of reaching ‘a good life’ without Christ is based on a double error. Firstly, we cannot do it; and secondly, in setting up ‘a good life’ as our final goal, we have missed the very point of our existence” (Lewis – Man or Rabbit?). I knew it.
            I am a Christian. I know that I am a fallen creature of sinful nature and that believing in God is the only way to Heaven. I should then live as a Christian, die and rise with Christ, and everything I do in my life I should do it for Him. I should stop longing for earthly pleasures, because there is something so much better than that waiting for me way beyond what is known. I had always thought that I belonged in this world – the sinful world. “Now we wake to find that it is no such thing. We have been mere spectators… Glory, as Christianity, teaches me to hope for it, turns out to satisfy my original desire…” I learned that the “following Him is, of course, the essential point” (Lewis – Weight of Glory).

            According to Plantinga, we are called to be followers of Jesus and we have to serve for His kingdom. That is our main vocation. Yet, we cannot do this on our own. We have to lean on God’s grace and let it hold us up. I know all this. Yet, the hardest part of all is the part where you have to show what you believe in your own behavior and life. Saying it… Anyone can do it. But actually doing it and showing it in your life… Just the bravest of all can do it.
            I am not so brave, but I can at least try. I am a student at Calvin College right now. While many of my friends have already planned out how they are going to live the next ten years at least, I don't even know what I'm going to be doing this summer. I don’t know what I am going to major in. I don’t even know if I am going to be alive tomorrow. There is not much that I know. All I know is that I am a student right now and I should do my best on whatever I am doing. I was taught that whatever I do, do it all for the glory of God. Study, sleep, eat, and talk. Do it all for Him. I cannot assure anyone that I will actually do everything for the glory of God. If I say so, I will be lying because I know that it is possible for me to fail on doing this due to my sinful nature. I agree with what Lewis says on his article of Learning in War Time. “The life which we, at any rate, can best lead to the glory of God at present is the learned life” I think then I should live a life of learning and at least try to remember everywhere I go that I am a Christian. Just by remembering it, I could at least make a little change in this world.
            In the book Engaging God’s World, there was a quote from Thomas Merton that I thought it was really interesting. The quote goes like this: “For the sinful self is not my real self, it is not the self You have wanted for me, only the self that I have wanted for myself. And I no longer want this false self. But now Father, I come to You in your Own Son's self... and it is He Who presents me to You.” I don’t think I will be able to say this right now, but I really hope that there will be some day that I could say that and actually mean it.

            Through this class, I learned again that God created the world; that we are sinful creatures; and that we can be saved by believing in Jesus Christ. It is the same thing I have always learned at church and school. Yet, it means a lot for me.

Works Consulted

C.S. Lewis and articles we read in class.

Plantinga, Cornelius. Engaging God's World: a Reformed Vision of Faith, Learning, and Living. Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 2002. Print.

Human Pain

Pain is inherent. It has been everywhere and it has existed since the longest time ever. C.S. Lewis mentions that "the proper good of a creature is to surrender itself to its Creator." Self-surrender is our cure from our sinful nature. This could be painful because it is an act of rendering back the will which we have so long claimed for our own. According to C.S. Lewis, pain shatters the illusion that all is well. Pain is evil, and when pain takes place, it is obvious that something is wrong because it hurts. Pain also "shatters the illusion that what we have, whether good or bad in itself, is our own and enough for us." When pain takes place, we realize that whenever we thought that we had all we want we were wrong. We thought we had everything that could make us happy, but we had not included God in that 'all.' We then realize that God is the source of true happiness. Pain shatters our self-sufficiency. Yet, the good news is that "He will have us even though we have shown that we prefer everything else to Him, and come to Him because there is 'nothing better' now to be had." A good Christian (let's say) choose to do whatever to please God. The good Christian will choose to follow God's will. After all, we never really know when we are actually doing God's will unless pain is involved. Pain is involved when God's will is the opposite of what we wanted to do. "The full acting out of the self's surrender to God therefore demands pain." C.S. Lewis then concludes saying that we have to obey God's will because God commands certain things because they are all right. Even though it might hurt at the time, later on we will realize that it was all for our own good.

As for me, I have mentioned in previous posts that I should live for Him and do everything for His glory.  I have said it many times, but deep inside of me knew that I haven't lived that way. I had said that Christians tend to be hypocrites, but now I was being the hypocrite. Many times I forgot that I had said this and lived the way I want to live. I was scarred. I thought that if I want to live that way I would have to sacrifice part of my good and comfortable life and losing that will hurt.

Vocation in the Kingdom of God by Plantinga

In this chapter of Engaging God's World, Plantinga talks about vocation and how are we going to live our life. As Christians, we are to live hoping for the kingdom of God. "Successful living depends especially on fitting our small kingdom inside God's big kingdom, always recalling where we got our dominion in the first place. Each of us is king or queen over a little. God's kingdom is 'over all'." We have to live our life, the small kingdom, to fit into God's big kingdom, which is the universe. Working in the kingdom of God and living for it. This should be our way of life, but now the question is are you going to be just a good citizen in the kingdom of God or a prime citizen in the kingdom of God. All of us are people with callings. We are called to followers of Jesus and we have to serve for His kingdom. That is our main vocation. After all, we have to remember that we cannot do this on our own. We have to lean into God's grace and let it hold us up. Through knowledge, skills, and virtues, we are to find what we really want to be so that we will serve Him the best. Even "education is for service in the kingdom."
In my case, I grew up in a Christian family. I learned that the best thing you could ever do with your life is to live life for God. Living life for God is not easy at all. I say that I should live life for God, but there are still many times that I forget and want to live my way doing whatever I want. Going to church every Sunday, going to Christian school, and being surrounded by tons of Christians doesn't mean that I am actually a good Christian and that I am living life for God. I haven't decided my major yet. I don't really know what I am going to do with my life. Many of my friends have already planned out how they are going to live the next ten years at least. I don't even know what I'm going to be doing this summer. I was always taught that for everything I do I should glorify His name. I think that is the hardest thing one could ever do in this world. Yet, it is possible. And right now I'll say that we are all called to do that. Study, sleep, eat, talk,,,, Do all that for Him. I might not know what I'll major in or what my job will be or what I'll be doing in the next ten years, but at least I'll get an idea of what direction I should be going.

Man or Rabbit

The question that C.S. Lewis is trying to answer in this article is whether or not you can live a good life without believing in Christianity. One of the parts that really caught my attention in this essay is the part where Lewis describes the part that the Christians and the world hold different views of what is good and what is bad. If there is ever a right or wrong answer to what is good, then one of the two views will be wrong. Yet, both of them will think that they are right and try to convince other people to believe what they believe. "Consequently,with the best will in the world, he will be helping his fellow creatures to their destruction." Then Lewis goes on explaining that God will not punish those who with their best will had made an honest mistake. However, those who ask the question 'Can't I lead a good life without believing in Christianity?' are those who had already deeply thought about the question and are a little convinced about the existence of God. "The man who asks this question has heard of Christianity and is by no means certain that it may not be true... To such a man it might be enough to reply that he is really asking to be allowed to get on with being 'good' before he has done his best to discover what good means." So what is it to be good? Can we even be good? The answer is no. C.S. Lewis says that we can't be good on our own moral efforts. And even if we could be good, we will later realize that being good is not what we really want to achieve through our life. "Morality is indispensable: but the Divine Life, which gives itself to us and which calls us to be gods, intends for us something in which morality will be swallowed up. We are to be re-made. All the rabbit in us is to disappear - the worried, conscientious, ethical rabbit as well as the cowardly and sensual rabbit. We shall bleed and squeal as the handfuls of fur come out; and then, surprisingly, we shall find underneath it all a thing we have never yet imagined; a real Man, an ageless god, a son of God, strong, radiant, wise, beautiful, and drenched in joy."
It is really hard to define what good and bad is. Yet, one thing I know is that I cannot be good by myself because I am a sinful creature. The bad side of me was already born with me. All I can do is to rely on God, because God is good.

The Inner Ring

Wherever you go, there would always be groups of people. Let's see Calvin as an example. There are the Christian Reformed and the ones that are not Christian Reformed. There are the Michigan people and the ones that come from other states. There are then the Americans and the International Students. Then among that group of International Students there are many other groups based on their ethnicity. This is what C.S. Lewis called the Inner Ring. You discovered an Inner Ring, a group you want to belong. And when you get close enough to be part of that Inner Ring, you discover that there were other Inner Rings that you didn't know. "Within the ring, there was a Ring yet more inner." This process keeps going and going as if you are peeling layers and layers of onion. Everyone has a desire to be inside an Inner Ring because they are scarred to be left outside. Interestingly, C.S. Lewis mentioned that the existence of an Inner Ring is necessary although in some cases it can be dangerous. "A thing may be morally neutral and yet the desire for that thing may be dangerous." When one chooses the wrong Inner Rings, then one can turn into a scoundrel. We talked about gang members as an example of this. Some kids don't really know what it is to be in a gang, which in this case is the Inner Ring. They just want to be friends with those in the gang, so they joined the gang. However, the consequences are that they have to do bad things as stealing and hurting people although they might not really want to until they eventually turn into a scoundrel. Another danger is that you might have a strong desire to be in that Inner Ring but you don't really know what is it to be in that ring. "If all you want is to be in the know, your pleasure will be short lived."
"Poor man - it is not large, lighted rooms, or champagne, or even scandals about peers and Cabinet Ministers that he wants: it is the sacred little attic or studio, the heads bent together, the fog of tobacco smoke, and the delicious knowledge that we - we four or five all huddled beside this stove - are the people who know." Just like this poor man, we have to know what is it that we really want and be aware of the dangers of the Inner Ring.

Eros from The Four Loves

According to C.S. Lewis, Eros is the love between two opposite sexes - love between male and female. Eros wants the Beloved not the pleasure you get from sex, which in this case is referred to as Venus. It says that the one in love have no time to think about sex, because he is too busy thinking of the person. "The fact that she is a woman is far less important than the fact that she is herself." Then C.S. Lewis goes on explaining how should we view Venus between two people in love. Venus can happen within Eros, but  Eros is in its noblest and purest state if Venus is reduced to the minimum. Another interesting thing that C.S. Lewis mentioned was that "In Eros at times we seem to be flying; Venus gives us the sudden twitch that reminds us we are really captive balloons." He then moves on to the danger of Eros. The danger is not that the lovers will idolize themselves but it is that the lovers will idolize Eros, the love. Let's take the example of Romeo and Juliet. These two lovers fell in love and they do anything to be together. They idolized Eros and see what happens at the end.. They both die. And what could they say about it. "Love made us do it." These two lovers had loved Eros more than anything else - more than God. Lovers are not supposed to neither idolize each other nor idolize Eros. "To be in love is both to intend and to promise lifelong fidelity. Love makes vows unasked.... it has overleaped the massive wall of our selfhood." Once after marriage, the husband is then to love his wife as if Christ loved the Church and give his life for her. This doesn't mean that the husband is greater than the wife. "Marriage is most like a crucifixion; whose wife receives most and gives least... For the Church has no beauty but what the Bridegroom gives her; he does not find, but makes her, lovely."

Learning in War Time

"Human culture has always had to exist under the shadow of something infinitely more important than itself. If men had postponed the search for knowledge and beauty until they were secure the search would never have begun... Life has never been normal. Even those periods which we think most tranquil, like the nineteenth century, turn out, on closer inspection, to be full of cries, alarms, difficulties, emergencies." 

- C.S. Lewis

The world we are living is full of cries, alarms, difficulties, and emergencies. How should we then live in that world as Christians? In this article, C.S. Lewis not only explains the importance of learning and studying but also explains how should we live as Christians. As C.S. Lewis mentioned in one of the essays before, we cannot just say that we are Christians. We have to show by what we do that we are Christians. We have to act. In our cases, we have to study hard and learn because we are students and because 'the life which we, at any rate, can best lead to the glory of God at present is the learned life.' Learning is our duty right now. Excitement, frustration, and fear might be there to prevent us from actually doing what we have to. You might get excited and forget your real purpose of learning. Don't get distracted by anything else. No matter what, keep doing what you were doing. 'The only people who achieve much are those who want knowledge so badly that they seek it while the conditions are still unfavorable.' At times, you might also get frustrated because it takes time and effort. Although it might seem as it will never end, you just have to do your best at the present and leave the future to God. You might get fearful because pain and even death might be involved in what you are doing. However, if you think that by death you will get to be with God then you won't be too scarred of death or pain because you know that something better than anything in this world is there beyond death. And at last, no matter what you do, do it all for the glory of God.

Redemption by Plantinga

Plantinga starts this chapter talking about God's mercy to the undeserving. Even when he kicked Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden, He took care of them by providing them with warm clothe. God's grace and mercy is shown throughout history. He promised Abraham and his descendants that He will take care of them, and He keeps His promise. He takes care of the Israelites while they were crossing the desert even though they complained all the time for what they didn't have. He sent us His one and only Son - the Messiah, the Lord, the Son of God, the Son of Man, Christ, and the Savior. According to Plantinga, "He is both the sacrificial lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and the good shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep." Jesus Christ came to give His life as a ransom for many as it is written in Mark 10:45. Jesus Christ suffered and was crucified and died. He then rose from the dead. The Lord is risen. That is still not the end of the story. Whoever believes in Christ will be saved and will have eternal life. I think this story tells much of the persistence of God's grace. After all, this story of God's grace and mercy is quite pointless if we, His creatures, don't believe in it. The point was that through Christ's death people will be saved. We have to believe in it and live a Christian life so that we could be saved. We have to be in Christ. With double grace (sanctification and justification) and faith combined, we should be united with Christ. Yet those who refuse to believe in this will probably enjoy their short life engaging in sinful acts. Those are the ignorant and stupid ones who does not know what is good and will have something worst waiting for them later on - hell. "Those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it" (Matt. 16:25) Plantinga concludes saying that we should then live as Christians, die and rise with Christ, and everything we do in our lives we should do it for Him.

The Fall by Plantinga

When God created the world, everything was good. At the beginning, Adam and Eve has chosen to live against God, against each other, and against God's world according to Plantinga. This is when sin entered our world. We all know that we are sinful and fallen creatures. "According to Genesis 3 and Romans 5, our whole race 'has a habit' where sin is concerned... the corruption and guilt of our first parents have run right down the generations, tainting us all." Sin has shadowed God's good creation. Sin has corrupted us and separated us from God. Here, the danger is that when we corrupt ourselves and do corrupted acts, we could also corrupt others. Even with customs and traditions, if we live in a culture with sinful customs and traditions, sin will look normal. Yet, it is not normal and it is hard to realize it is bad because everyone else does it. For example, in the book 'Things Fall Apart' it talks about bad traditions that the African village called Umuofia had. Having twins was a devil thing. So every time someone had twins, the mother had to abandon her children in the wood and leave them by themselves to starve to death or even taken by any wild animal. This tradition was normal for the African people in this village, but it is not good. We have to be careful and not let sin become a habit. We have to be careful so that sin won't look like something normal, because sin comes from Satan. Sin is not good and it goes against God's nature. We had corrupted the world with sin. However, we still have hope. The good part of this story is that God has sent His one and only son to this world so that through Him we can be saved. This corrupted world can become good through God. So I think we should just rely on God who is good and holy instead of wondering around the sinful world.

The Poison of Subjectivism

Reason. Everyone possess something called reason, and most of the times everyone define what is right and wrong based on their reasons. This is what is called subjectivism. "After studying his environment man has begun to study himself. Up to that point, he had assumed his own reason and through it seen all other things." Yet, it might be possible that people think they are right and that their reasons are correct, but it might be wrong. A person can become too arrogant and proud of his own knowledge and reason. Then, even the smartest person in the world could become stupid and make the stupidest decisions ever. There is also what is called the modern view of subjectivism. The modern view tells that "to say that a thing is good is merely to express our feeling about it; and our feeling about it is the feeling we have been socially conditioned to have." This modern view is wrong because it tells us to base everything on the way we feel and on how society views stuff. If society tells you that something is correct, then it is ok to do that. For example, there are some states where same sex marriage is legal. The society is telling us that same sex marriage is correct. Is it really ok and correct to do what society tells us to do? Even the society that we are living in is ruled by men. Men are sinful creatures. We are all fallen creatures. Then, what should we do to do what is right? We have to follow the moral law (the Law of Human Nature that we talked about in Mere Christianity). This common law that God has put in our heart will tell us what is right and wrong and prevent us from making stupid decisions by following our sinful selves.
"But we, favoured beyond the wisest pagans, know what lies beyond existence, what admits no contingency, what lends divinity to all else, what is the ground of all existence, is not simply a law but also a begetting love, a love begotten, and the love which, being these two, is also imminent in all those who are caught up to share the unity of their self-caused life. God is not merely good, but goodness; goodness is not merely divine, but God."

Mere Christianity

In the first four chapters that we read, it talked about how there's this thing called 'The Law of Human Nature.' This Law of Nature is like that law that defines what is right and wrong, but there is no need to be taught because everyone knows about it. While a child was playing, he mistakenly hurts his friend. Even though the child was not taught that hurting people is bad, he knows that it is bad and feels guilty. In the same way, every single country has laws against murderers. That is because everyone knows that killing people is not right, and who taught everyone that killing is not right? This is what C.S. Lewis called the Law of Nature. It is basically a common law that defines what is right and wrong even when you have never learned about it. It is the law that God wrote in each man's heart (according to what professor said). This law is not the same as those 'Decent Behaviors' that are taught at home or school. For example, in Guatemala it is taught that it is not good to make a lot of noise when you are eating. Eating manners are really important. However, in Korea, everyone eats the way you want to eat. Those eating manners that are taught in Guatemala are really different to the Korean one. These are the decent behaviors that are taught. It is not the same as the Law of Nature. The interesting part of the Law of Nature is that through it we can somehow know that there's someone or something beyond the world that we are living - beyond reality. "This Rule of Right and Wrong, or Law of Human Nature.. must somehow or other be a real thing -- a thing that is really there, not made up by ourselves. And yet it is not a fact in the ordinary sense, in the same way as our actual behaviour is a fact... It begins to look as if we shall have to admit that there is more than one kind of reality; that, in this particular case, there is something above and beyond the ordinary facts of men's behaviour, and yet quite definitely real.."

show and tell

My show and tell had nothing to do with C.S. Lewis. I was just looking for something interesting and I remembered a video of a sermon that a friend showed me last year. This guy called Louis Giglio talked about a little protein molecule named 'laminin.' "Cells organize into certain molecular structures and that determines what proteins they are. There are between 10,000 to 60,000 proteins in the human body, but one of them is a cell adhesion molecule and that tells the cell what its job is in the human body... This thing called laminin holds our body together."This thing called laminin basically controlled all the cells of the entire body. Just as the laminin holds our human body together, all things hold together in Jesus Christ. In Jesus Christ, everything holds together!

Screwtape Letters

In this reading, Screwtape (the uncle devil) is teaching Wormwood (the nephew devil) about how to lead the patient (the human being) to hell. Screwtape explains that the devil must introduce a change of direction at first and slowly and gradually lead him to hell without letting the patient know about it. The devil was so much smarter than I thought he would be. All the methods and ways to lead the patient to hell are so well planned out, and they all actually make sense. In this letter, Screwtape mentions that "As long as he (the patient) retains externally the habits of a Christian he can still be made to think of himself as one who has adopted a few new friends and amusements but whose spiritual state is much the same as it was six weeks ago." I read this, and I realized that it had actually happened to me. There were times that I would just go to church because I had been going there every Sunday since I was little. Going to church was just a habit. I would go to church and sit with my friends and as soon as the preacher starts talking, I would also start doing other stuffs. I would start sending notes to my neighbor friends and start talking to them. I would be texting with friends. I would even take pictures with friends, and even if I wasn't doing anything else, I was not listening to the sermon. I would laugh not because of the joy I felt while listening to the sermon, but laugh because of the fun and excitement of being with friends. I would still call myself a Christian. Those little sins that seemed to be trivial and revocable was driving me away from God. I sometimes thought that I shouldn't be like that. Yet, when I went back to church, I would be doing the same stuffs anyway, because not listening to the sermon had become into a habit. In the letter it says that "Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one - the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.." This is so true, and I think that's why we have to be more careful for what we do every single day.

Creation - Plantinga

"Creation is neither a necessity nor an accident... Creation is an act of imaginative love." Thinking about God creation, I realized again how powerful and loving God is. There are more than 750,000 species of insects and 250,000 species of plants. Besides that, there is the galaxy which goes beyond our human understanding and knowledge. The galaxy is so complex that people have been trying to learn about it throughout the years, but we still don't know much about it. Last summer, I was able to go snorkeling somewhere in Belize. I was so amazed by what I saw. All those fish and water creatures and plants.. They were all great. God had created all that, and that is how powerful God is. Think about us - the human beings. Isn't it amazing how every single one of us has different features and personalities? Even though we are all the same human beings, God created you unique. That is how much God loves every single one of us. He loved us so much that He actually took His time to make us unique. And among all those other creatures, He created us, the human beings, in His image. That is an honor for me. Being created in the image of the greatest being ever.. That's amazing. We could compare it this way. We hate it when we are compared to any other creature as pigs and chickens, because we tend to think of ourselves as higher status and smarter than those creatures. For God who is so much greater than us, we could have been like any of those creatures that we tend to think of them as dumb and ugly. Yet, He create us in His image. He gave us the privilege to at least resemble a little bit of His image.
Now the question is: What can we do for this awesome God? I guess... All we could do is to praise the Lord and glorify His name. Your mind and your physical body. Use it all to glorify His name. Live your life to glorify His name.

The Weight of Glory

This article talked about glory. When people think of the word glory, they think about themselves being praised by other people, being famous, and being like a shining star among those people. However, C.S. Lewis mentions that we, as Christians, have to think of glory in a different way. The fame that we have to care about is the 'fame with God, approval or appreciation by God.' How God thinks of us is so much more important than what other people think of us. We, then, have to work hard and try our best to satisfy God by what we do in our lives instead of trying to satisfy other people.
There is a quote from this article that I do want to talk about: "Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased." I think this quote talks so much about our sinful nature and our stupidity. If we only believe in God, we will be able to live forever in Heaven. There should be no other gift that could surpass this one. However, we keep forgetting it. As it was written in the article, the definition of Heaven is outside our experience. We don't know how it is. That's why we keep forgetting about it and falling in temptations because we have experienced those stuffs in earth and had pleased us somehow. We are too stupid that traded Heaven to earthly pleasures. We are too stupid that we forgot that Heaven is so much better than any of those earthly pleasures. That is why we have to keep remembering that we are here to please God and that we are here to receive approval from God. We have to remember that, "the following Him is, of course, the essential point."

Our English Syllabus

Our English Syllabus mainly talks about learning and education. C.S. Lewis saw learning and education as two separate things. Learning is just the common thirst for knowledge and education is when you are becoming a real human being, a good man. I had a hard time trying to differentiate the two because I have always thought about it as two similar, related things. The article then talks about the importance of living a life of learning and how are you going to apply what you have learned to your own life.

There is a quote that I thought it was really interesting. The quote goes like this: “The proper question for a freshman is not ‘What will do me most good?’ but ‘What do I most want to know?’ For nothing that we have to offer will do him good unless he can be persuaded to forget all about self-improvement for three or four years, and to absorb himself in getting to know some part of reality, as it is in itself.” I am a freshman in college and I have no clue what I am going to major. It says to think about what I want to know instead of what will do me most good. I do think it is really important and necessary to forget about self-improvement and do what I want to do. Learn what I want to learn. But I think that forgetting about self-improvement is one of the hardest things you could ever do especially when the society/culture you grew up in keeps emphasizing the importance of self-improvement.

Later on in the article, C.S. Lewis talks about the need to know as much as you can because “a perfect study of anything requires a knowledge of everything.” We talked in class about the attitude we need to take towards the boring core classes that we are all taking in Calvin. Although those core classes might seem unnecessary, the knowledge that we gain in all those classes will be useful in the future.

I learned from this article that the best I could do right now is to do good and try my best in the classes that I am taking right now because that is my duty as a student and because everything I learn there will somehow be useful in the future.

We Have No Right To Happiness & Longing and Hope

In our reading of Engaging God's World by Cornelius Plantinga Jr., it talked about longing and hope. Everyone desires something and longs for something. In most cases, people tend to long for earthly stuffs. We long for our own health, money, wealth, etc., because we are all selfish. However, "the truth is that nothing in this earth can finally satisfy us."We have to long for something good and shape our future based on what God wants us to do. Center all our hopes on Jesus Christ and let the Holy Spirit guide us, because "under the influence of the Holy Spirit, one man's hope spreads out to cover all humankind." 

In class, we talked about two different examples. The first example was that of Mr. A and Mrs. B from the article 'Have No Right To Happiness.' Mr. A married Mrs. A just because of her outer appearances. When Mrs. A grew old and she lost all her beauty and liveliness, Mr. A wanted to divorce her and marry Mrs. B who was in the same situation as Mr. A. Mrs. B's life after marriage was not the one that she had dreamed of for many years. Mr. B apparently lost his virility and his job. Somehow, Mr. A and Mrs. B met and 'fell in love.' Both Mr. A and Mrs. B declared that they had the right to be happy as everyone else and argued about why it is not good to divorce their ex-partner. Their longings and their definition of happiness was based on sex, beauty, and money. What was wrong in this relationship was that they both desired the wrong things. Sooner or later, the relationship between Mr. A and Mrs. B will come to an end because of the same reasons.

The second example was that of our professors. Prof. Ribeiro had married Mrs. Ribeiro and stayed together thirty three years. Prof. Ribeiro said that they wouldn't have been able to stay together if he married his wife just because of her beauty. He had not based his desires on selfish needs as Mr. A because he knew that after all what matters the most is the inside not the outer appearances. It was a decision he had made after years of prayers and guidance.  

Through this class, I learned that we should put God first and center all our hopes in Jesus Christ. Stay awake and walk towards our goal (which of course should be based on Jesus). Rejoice in the Lord.

"For the sinful self is not my real self, it is not the self You have wanted for me, only the self that I have wanted for myself. And I no longer want this false self. But now Father, I come to You in your Own Son's self... and it is He Who presents me to You." -Thomas Merton

God in the Dock: "Bulverism"

According to C.S. Lewis, Bulverism is 'to assume without discussion that he is wrong and then distract his attention from this by busily explaining how he became to be so silly.' In other words, Bulverism is when someone tells you that you are wrong but gives unreasonable explanations of why you are wrong attacking you instead of the arguments. Bulverism is actually present everywhere. For example, Bulverism is present in a small classroom environment when a teacher starts breaking the rules of not eating in class. When students see this, they argue to the teacher that it is not fair that they cannot eat in class but he can. After all, the teacher answers them saying that he can break the rules because he is a teacher, the boss of the class, and students can't do it because the boss says so. This is Bulverism. The teacher is assuming that the students are wrong and then attacked the students by giving unreasonable explanations of why he can do what he is doing. The article we read last night talks mainly about Bulverism and how important it is to show a person that he or she is wrong and then start explaining why the argument is wrong. Then the question is, how do we show that it is wrong? We know that something is wrong when it goes against what our indicator (in this case what God wants us to do) says. God's law is written in our heart, in our conscience. We have to let the spirit lead us and have faith that God will lead us to a good place. At the same time, we have to do our parts too. We have to 'rise, follow, speak, and act.' We have to use our talents for God. After all, what matters the most is not success but faithfulness. Do it all for the glory of God and rely on him then you will know the answer. You will know what's right and wrong, and you will be able to show that to others in a proper way.

Meditation in a Toolshed - CS Lewis

The article talked about how you can be looking along a certain thing by experiencing it or you can be looking at that certain thing by watching it and understanding it but not actually experiencing it. The article keeps explaining the two ways of looking: looking along and looking at. It gives examples as that of a man who has fallen in love. Everything will look different for the man who has fallen in love. 'The whole world looks different when he sees her.' However, on a scientist's view (who is just an outsider looking at the situation), this will just be a sexual impulse. After reading this, I thought that it was necessary to look at things in both views, but I also understood that it was hard to do the both things. When we discussed this further in class, we said that if everyone has different perspective and the way each person views stuffs is different then is it possible to see the whole thing? Some day, the new will become old and culture changes. Everything change, and the way we view stuffs will also change. Another question that we came up with was, if experience comes first or understanding comes first? What's the order of it? No one really knows. That's why we need ignorance to be humble in every situation and wisdom to make the right decisions. As a conclusion, we said that we have to stay close to the culture God wants us to be in so that we could have wisdom and humility in every situation.

ICorinthian 13:12 - Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror, then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 

Hebrew 11 <faith>