E. DuBose Post 8: Outside Reading 1

16APR12

Mere Christianity & Weight of Glory Discussion

"If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world" (Mere Christianity).

As I've come across many readings of Lewis, one theme was brought up among friends as we discussed what it was about Lewis' writings that we loved so much.  This theme was sehnsucht.  Sehnsucht is a sense of nostalgia and longing for something we do not know.  I relate this word not only to God but to my "wanderlust."  I have an insatiable appetite for exploring and learning new things.  I know there is so much out in the world to see, I just don't know what it is!  This is the same for God.  He is where I long to be.  He creates a longing in us that nothing of this world will ever fill.  He creates a longing for home, because this life never really feels (Goldilocks says it best) "just right."

This theme of sehnsucht is seen in The Space Trilogy, Narnia, Till We Have Faces, The Pilgrims Regress ...and so forth.  Myth allows us to explore the possible quenching of this appetite for something more, for a world not known but we know is there.  Myth allows us to place our longing into a hope for something better.  In the Christian religion, it is home that we long for.  We constantly find that here, in the secondary world, our desires that cannot be fulfilled each time we try to fulfill them expose us for what we are really made for.  We are made for a purpose, we were made for a future with God.  We deal with this secondary world because we know it is temporary.  To deal with the condition of this temporary world we create myth so that we can revel in the nostalgia of something better that is unknown.  In Weight of Glory, Lewis says, "the desire for our proper place will be already in us, but not yet attached to the true object. (p. 2).   Just as we are ambassadors for Christ, we are also sojourners away from our eternal home.  With this in mind it is important to see that all objects on earth in our secondary world are temporary and meaningless.  This notion allows us to be the best witnesses for Christ.  If we do not become attached to things that are meaningless, that allows us to travel and give up ourselves and possessions to share the Gospel with the world.

"[His] promise of glory...becomes highly relevant to our deep desire"  Weight of Glory  It is only through us being united with Him that we can fulfill this persistent longing.