Giving up our mud pies

Why is there pain? Why do bad things happen to good people?

Tough questions. There are several answers though.

Here's one that has helped me through some pretty difficult times.

We think of God as this 'heavenly humbug' whose primary task is the destruction of our good times. We dare not think 'Life is good' lest the 'cosmic grinch' come and steal our Christmas.

The truth of the matter is that God wants us to have joy, His joy. Not the weak fleeting happiness that we mistakenly desire, but the everlasting joy that comes from Him. But how can we receive such a gift?

In order to accomplish this, in order to let Him turn us into the awesome Christ-like people that we were meant to be, so that we can experience true peace and pleasure, we must put Him first. We must willingly trust His judgment. We must allow the good times to go, and the bad times to come, because we know God wants what is best. He loves us more than we can comprehend, and He is shaping us into the types of people that really can live in His blessed joy.

CS Lewis said that our desire for pleasure is not too strong, but is actually too weak. We fiddle around with drink, sex, ambition, and greed; when ultimate joy is offered to us. He says we are like a child making mud pies in the slums. When someone offers a trip to the beach, he says no. Not because he doesn't like the beach, but because he doesn't really understand the offer. He doesn't understand that the beach offers so much more than the dirty water he is sitting in. If we take him from his slum, remove him from his weak fleeting happiness, he will cry, because he doesn't understand what we are doing. He thinks we are ruining his fun, when we are really trying to multiply it more than he could ever imagine.

We are like that boy. We are creatures that don't even understand the offer God makes. We want to play with our petty sins, our weak pleasures, while God offers so much more. But to take His offer, to truly have the ultimate joy that He wants us to have, we must be changed. For not only do we misunderstand the offer, but we are incapable of even accepting it. Incapable of experiencing joy as God knows it. Joy as joy should truly be. We must be changed. We must give everything over to Him, and allow Him to make us into creatures capable of accepting His joy.

We must give up our mud pies, and let Him introduce us to the sights and sounds of truly living.

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