There seems no reason for describing as hypocritical the short-lived piety of those whose religion fades away once they have emerged from ‘danger, necessity, or tribulation’. Why should they not have been sincere? They were desperate and they howled for help. Who wouldn’t?
—C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves
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The connoisseur does not merely enjoy his claret as he might enjoy warming his feet when they were cold. He feels that here is a wine that deserves his full attention; that justifies all the tradition and skill that have gone to its making and all the years of training that have made his own palate fit to judge it. There is even a glimmering of unselfishness in his attitude. He wants the wine to be preserved and kept in good condition, not entirely for his own sake. Even if he were on his deathbed and was never going to drink wine again, he would be horrified at the thought of this vintage being spilled or spoiled or even drunk by clods (like myself) who can’t tell a good claret from a bad. And so with the man who passes the sweet-peas. He does not simply enjoy, he feels that this fragrance somehow deserves to be enjoyed.
—C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves -
The human mind is generally far more eager to praise and dispraise than to describe and define. It wants to make every distinction a distinction of value; hence those fatal critics who can never point out the differing quality of two poets without putting them in an order of preference as if they were candidates for a prize.
—C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves -
For the temperate man an occasional glass of wine is a treat—like the smell of the bean-field. But to the alcoholic, whose palate and digestion have long since been destroyed, no liquor gives any pleasure except that of relief from an unbearable craving. So far as he can still discern tastes at all, he rather dislikes it; but it is better than the misery of remaining sober.
—C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves -
And my search for love and acceptance outside of God’s presence then leads to dangerous places. The world’s plan always leads us to places of pain, loneliness, and a deep ache for belonging that seems just out of reach. Because the need to be loved and accepted runs so deep, we find ourselves doing things we never thought possible just to try to satisfy those desires. What starts off as a seemingly small compromise can easily become a complete contradiction to the people we long to be.
Uninvited: Living Loved When You Feel Less Than, Left Out, and Lonely
Lysa TerKeurst -
If we feel lonely we must pray. But the object of our prayer must be God and not our loneliness. The loneliness is a sign that our relationship with God needs fixing.
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Grace does not depart from a person completely, but only partially, for a period of time. Sometimes if a person becomes proud, grace withdraws, so the person falls, recognizing his own weakness, and therefore he does not go back to being prideful. In this case, this withdrawal is a kind of medicine. Other times, grace withdraws a little as a form of divine providence so the person yearns for grace, prays for grace, thus in the process they grow in prayer, giving thanks to God for responding to their petitions, while not slacking, struggling, and so on.
—H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Struggle and Grace
SO GOOD QUOTES 