The Problem of Pain – The Intolerable Compliment
C.S. Lewis
When we want to be something other than the thing God wants us to be, we must be wanting what, in fact, will not make us happy. Those Divine demands which sound to our natural ears most like those of a despot and least like those of a lover, in fact marshall us where we should want to go if we knew what we wanted. He demands our worship, our obedience, our prostration. Do we suppose that they can do Him any good, or fear like the chorus in Milton, that human irreverence can bring about “His glory’s diminution”? A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word “darkness” on the wall of his cell . . . .
We are bidden to “put on Christ,” to become like God. That is, whether we like it or not, God intends to give us what we need, not what we now think we want. Once more, we are embarrassed by the intolerable compliment, by too much love, not too little.
(from Chapter 3)
1 comment:
I was thinking this morning as to whether postmodernism was created to defend us against the intrusion of "the intolerable compliment", which seeks to steer our path in life. This clashes with our inner wish for autonomy, and to cry "there is no truth" can seem to shield us from Truth Himself. Even as Christians we have inner rooms that God may not enter. Yet surrender and we will truly live.
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