Mere Christianity pt. 2

I have dated a lot of great girls but it seems every time it moves toward a longer term commitment, I let it fizzle out. I am often asking myself why I always do this. It seems that once the girl's interest is certain and the rush I get from the chase is over, I feel like I need to get out and date other people. There are probably many explanations as to why I do this but C.S. touches on one point so clearly that I wanted to highlight it.

Mere Christianity, Book III, chapter 6 is titled "Christian Marriage." One paragraph resonated with me so well that I'm going to write it up here:

"This is, I think, one little part of what Christ meant by saying that a thing will not really live unless it first dies. It is simply no good trying to keep any thrill: that is the very worst thing you can do. Let the thrill go--let it die away--go on through that period of death into the quieter interest and happiness that follow--and you will find you are living in a world of new thrills all the time. But if you decide to make thrills your regular diet and try to prolong them artificially, they will all get weaker and weaker, and fewer and fewer, and you will be a bored, disillusioned old man for the rest of your life... It is much better fun to learn to swim than to go on endlessly (and hopelessly) trying to get back the feeling you had when you first went paddling as a small boy."

He talks about how people can be infatuated with a city. The thrill they once felt, however, dies away after living there for a little while. But if they stick with it and look for the good, their interest can grow in to much more powerful feelings and appreciation for the city. I am currently infatuated with New York. I'm moving there this summer and couldn't be more excited. People often tell me that it is a completely different experience to visit New York than to live in New York. I believe there is a certain thrill that tourists feel in NY that the locals don't but I don't want to let that stop me from really loving the city.

Back to dating. I don't want to simply be a dating thrill seeker and follow the path of highest thrill. In other aspects of my life I tend to be a thrill seeker and it makes sense that I would date some girls for the rush and then move on to the next one. I do, however, want to develop those deeper feelings of trust and connection. I want to let myself get past the phase of infatuation and develop a real relationship with someone that is not based on thrill but on love. Like I mentioned before, there are probably many other reasons that explain why I bounce from girl to girl but this reason will no longer be one of them.

Mere Christianity pt. 1

Mere Christianity - C.S. Lewis

C.S. Lewis provides insightful arguments early in Mere Christianity for why Christianity is the only valid "explanation" of life that makes sense. He also discusses important unifying doctrines that are found in almost all Christian religions.

For many years Lewis was a stalwart atheist, and an educated and eloquent one at that. As a former atheist, he has a unique view that most Christians don't, providing a powerful backdrop to his arguments.

As I read his writing, I am often compelled to take time to meditate on what I have read, analyze whether I agree, and determine how it applies to my life. It is an unusual phenomena; with most books I simply want to reach the end in order to pick up the next book, checking the box next to as many books on my list as possible. Lewis' thoughts are well formulated and help me dive deeper than I normally do and I enjoy the challenge of digging further into the "why" of my beliefs.

As an atheist, Lewis could not believe in Christianity because the unjust aspects of the world show that there could not be an intelligent being as a creator. However, upon further analysis, he came to the following question: where did the idea of "just" and "unjust" come from?

• Was is simply his personal preference of how things in the world should be? In this case his argument would fall apart because the fact that the world was not in compliance with his personal preferences was not a significant enough point to claim that there could be no Greater Being. What if the way the world is were exactly in line with the way other people thought it should be?
• Or was it that there was a universal idea of justness that came as part of our nature? In this case, this principle could not have been manufactured by man, else it would not be consistent throughout time and throughout civilizations. It had to have come from a superior power that also happened to be just.

to be continued...