thoughts from clive staples.

i'm continually thankful for c.s. lewis. i highly recommend this book: a year with c.s. lewis: daily readings from his classic works. lewis always seems to put my thoughts into words in a way that i could never articulate.

i wanted to underline every sentence from september 12th's reading, so i thought it might be a good idea to share it on here. hope it challenges and encourages you, too. enjoy.

Some writers use the word charity to describe not only Christian love between human beings, but also God's love for man and man's love for God. About the second of these two, people are often worried. They are told they ought to love God. They cannot find any such feeling in themselves. What are they to do? The answer is the same as before. Act as if you did. Do not sit trying to manufacture feelings. Ask yourself, 'If I were sure that I loved God, what would I do?' When you have found the answer, go and do it.

On the whole, God's love for us is a much safer subject to think about than our love for Him. Nobody can always have devout feelings: and even if we could, feelings are not what God principally cares about. Christian Love, either towards God or towards man, is an affair of the will. If we are trying to do His will we are obeying the commandment, 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God.' He will give us feelings of love if He pleases. We cannot create them for ourselves, and we must not demand them as a right. But the great thing to remember is that, though our feelings come and go, His love for us does not. It is not wearied by our sins, or our indifference; and, therefore, it is quite relentless in its determination that we shall be cured of those sins, at whatever cost to us, at whatever cost to Him.

--from Mere Christianity

a deep, emotional feeling of love for God is something i find myself more often than not merely wishing for. though the chill bumps and fast heart beats come and go, i must continue to choose to love him. it certainly doesn't sound very romantic, but perhaps a covenantal, relational commitment is sometimes a little less picturesque than we might make it out to be. in my flesh, i absolutely cannot muster up a love for him on my own. praise god that he, at times, gives us those overwhelming feelings.

i'm thankful that he is faithful when i am faithless, that his love is relentless when mine is indifferent.

goodbye, summer.

top 10 things i'm going to miss about summer 2010:

(in no particular order and not including india. clearly.)

• swimming pool. i'm seriously considering investing in a kiddie pool for our backyard here in waco.
• baseball games with the fam. at least now i can cheer on the rangers from air conditioning.

• longview restaurants. pizza king's queen's delight. dudley's banana pudding. butcher shop's burgers (and cookies, of course). newk's favorite salad. carlito's zelda. friday lunches at willie g's.
• bike rides with drewby. well, really, just drew in general. i kinda got spoiled living in the same state with him again.

• spontaneous road trips. let's be honest. i'll still be on the road a lot, but much less spontaneously. planning ahead = not as fun.
• sweet family time. lots of packing and moving and crazy schedules, but always good to be together.

• first baptist church, longview. i'm a big fan of my home church and haven't really found one i'm as crazy about in waco.
• wearing shorts and tshirts everyday. people in grad school think they need to dress up for some reason... something about being professional or presentable or serious or something...
• pleasure reading. hello, syllabi.
• arnold palmers. the official drink of summer.

shameless plugs.

the most recent edition of the baptist standard featured a couple articles about some of my favorite people... so, of course, i think you should read them.

1. dr. mike stroope. if you've followed my blog at all, you should be familiar with this name. he's the professor i traveled around india with, and he's the mission guru at truett seminary. the article discusses his thoughts on mission strategies that he presented at the baptist world alliance meeting a couple weeks ago. i like the way he thinks.

2. the bristers. chris' dad is the pastor at first baptist church, duncanville, texas, and this article is about the relationship being built between their church and a community in east india. i may or may not be just a little bit proud.

enjoy!

fix you.

my mom is wrapping up a study on the book of john in her ladies' sunday school class. this morning she was in chapter 19... the cross. it was both heavy and refreshing to sit in on her class today. i realized that, as a believer, i don't think i reflect on/think about/study the cross enough--and maybe there's never a point of "enough" in this area, but surely my focus needs to be there more than it typically is. i want to be more constantly aware of the weight of my sinful nature and the depth of his love and grace.

at the end of her lesson, she showed this video of clips from "the passion of the christ" set to coldplay's "fix you." this song has been a favorite of mine for a while. in the last three years, the words of this song have usually driven me to feelings of grief (almost in a therapeutic way--is that weird?), but today, hearing it while watching the passion unfold, i was driven to feelings of hope and redemption.

"he made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of god in him." 2 corinthians 5.21 (nasb)

"we know that when jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. never again will death have the last word." romans 6. (the message)

watch the video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rq2yf-uQJHU

how was india?

i've been asked this question countless times in the last few weeks, and i've learned that it's absolutely impossible to answer well. i can't believe i've been back in the states for 2 1/2 weeks. part of me feels like these weeks have flown by, but part of me feels like india was 3 months ago. sometimes i even get that--did i really even go to india?--feeling. dr. stroope warned us that we might get that feeling, but i didn't want to believe him. i guess he was right. again.

i've recently been going through my journal from india over and over again trying to make myself remember different things i felt, experienced, and learned while i was there. there are some issues that are much more absolute to me now than they were before the trip, but there are other issues that have developed into even bigger and broader questions. i think i'll make a list (no one's surprised). obviously it won't be exhaustive--just a few things i'm thinking about and would love for you to think about too...

• living a lifestyle of spiritual devotion--not legalism, but discipline.
• seeking spiritual sensitivity.
• grasping the absolute necessity of prayer and scripture.
• living more simply.
• living slowly.
• recognizing jesus as the only way.
• knowing that jesus is enough.
• understanding who i am in light of who he is.
• recognizing his providence and grace.
• living with my hands open--i am entitled to nothing--everything is a gift.
• seeing people as stories.
• knowing my role as a witness.
• asking questions of gospel, conversion, salvation, mission.
• questioning my questions--am i asking arrogantly or humbly?

in mark 5, after jesus healed a demon-possessed man, the man--of course--wanted to follow him. instead of letting the man stay with him, jesus said to him, "go home to your friends and tell them how much the lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you."

when i get asked the token "how was india?" question, i love to talk about the colors, the smells, the food, the clothes, the people, and the culture of india... but maybe--like the demon-possessed man--my role is to declare god's mercy and faithfulness in my life.