The Great Divorce

Yesterday I bought a copy of The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis. I read it this afternoon and found it very interesting. What really impressed me was how easy it is to let pride keep us from advancing in life.

There was someone who kept talking about how they never asked anyone for anything and took care of themselves. They said "I'm not asking for anybody's bleeding charity." To which the response came, "Then do. At once. Ask for the Bleeding Charity. Everything is here for the asking and nothing can be bought."

This makes me think of Isaiah 55:1: "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price."

Another line I took note of was, "I am not trying to make any point, I am telling you to repent and believe." This was said to someone who was resisting the truth. Not just the relativistic "my truth may not be your truth" type of thing, but THE actual truth about the nature of the universe.

How many of us resist understanding things as they are? It is an uncomfortable thought for many people that there might actually be one authoritative truth. That would mean someone is going to have to be wrong.

We see the indication that there really is an authoritative truth when we read in Philippians 2:10-11: "That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in the earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
(Variations of this appear in Isaiah 45:23, Romans 14:11-12,Mosiah 27:31, and D&C 76:110 and 88:104)

There is nothing better than when something gets you thinking about the world around you. I think a lot of things about the world that I just can't share with others right now. However, that's more based on the fact that What You Can't Say can speak volumes about what things may need to be examined.

Shaun