Currently Reading. . .

We just started attending a new Sunday School class at our church. We're discussing biblical answers to common troubles of life. One topic we'll be discussing is the problem of pain. Which made me get C.S. Lewis' book by that title off the shelf. I read the book about 7 years ago. It's been good to pick it up again. Lewis is not always an easy read, and this book is the most difficult of his that I've read so far.

Lewis doesn't pretend to be a theologian and he wasn't reformed. He was a member of the Church of England. He was a literature prof in England, and he was also a great Christian thinker. I don't agree with everything in his books, for example he has an interesting view of creation before the fall. I think he writes about it in this book, but I haven't gotten to it yet.

But with the disclaimer out of the way, I really like The Problem of Pain. Here's a quote for you:

"God is both further from us, and neared to us, than any other being. . .He (God) makes, we are made: He is original, we derivative. But at the same time, and for the same reason, the intimacy between God and even the meanest creature is closer than any that creatures can attain with one another. Our life is, at every moment, supplied by Him: our tiny, miraculous power of free will only operates on bodies which His continual energy keeps in existence - our very power to think is His power communicated to us."

At first it seems that statement doesn't make sense. We know how close we are to our spouse, parents, and families. How can the relationship between God and a murderer possibly surpass those familial relationships that mean so much to us. Well, wish was we may, we can't sustain the life of our spouse, but it is God who sustains the life of the vilest criminal. It is but His grace alone that I am not the criminal.