Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Mud Pies in a Slum

C.S. Lewis once said, "Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea".

In other words, we are far too easily satisfied. We inhale the empty calories of so much artificial stimulation that when reality comes calling, our hunger is ruined. It’s like mom used to say to you about eating before supper time, “Put that cookie down! It’ll ruin your appetite!”

Absolute Goodness and Glory is on the table. The aroma is filling the air and the lions in my spiritual stomach are growling. God has sent the Holy Spirit on a venture of availability trolling for people who know how to have an honest, heartfelt internal dialogue; “If I just touch His garments, I shall get well.” (Mark 5:24-34)

Some versions of the story I just referred to describe the event as Jesus perceiving in Himself that “virtue” had just proceeded from Him. The definition of the word virtue is, “moral excellence and goodness of character”. Absolute Goodness trumped temporary badness WHEN someone took the Holy Bait of that Goodness and put a pure hearted demand on it! Think about this; someone in a crowd seized Jesus’ clothes for a brief moment and that act of a focused appetite became a conduit for Absolute Goodness and Glory to flash into her body sufficient enough to expel and vaporize a 12 year long sickness.

If you are tired of “making mud pies in a slum” then its time to set your imagination free to explore what an infusion of God’s transcendent Goodness and Glory would vaporize if you gave Him just a handful of opportunity.

Reach, grab, pull it in…

3 comments:

Alice said...

Randy Dean, You're a genius (and a great writer. Where's the book?) I loved the C.S. Lewis quote, so much so that I am going to "borrow" it for a teaching I'm doing on "No More Nice Church." It's sad that what Lewis wrote has been true for so long. I love and appreciate you. Thanks for being about our Father's business. Alice Sharping

Anonymous said...

Randy, I just listened to your message with this blog. It's really great! I think I'll continue listening to your sermon's during my stay in France. God bless!~Claire

Anonymous said...

I also like to add random apostrophes to my writing. I' continue listening to your SERMONS durung my stay...