Thoughts on the Way Home

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

The Thing Just Isn't There

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I think one may be quite rid of the old haunting suspicion--it raises its head in every temptation--that there is something else than God--some other country into which He forbids us to trespass--some kind of delight which He 'doesn't appreciate' or just chooses to forbid, but which would be real delight if only we were allowed to get it. 
The thing just isn't there
Whatever we desire is either what God is trying to give us as quickly as He can, or else a false picture of what He is trying to give us--a false picture which would not attract us for a moment if we saw the real thing.

 --C. S. Lewis, as recorded in The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis, Volume 2: Books, Broadcasts, and the War, 1931-1949 (ed. Walter Hooper; Cambridge University Press, 2004), 124

HT: Dane Ortlund
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