Some time back, my wife recommended that I read The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis. After she assured me that she was not hinting at anything, I decided I would read it on a recent family trip.
I highly recommend the book.
Lewis imagines an afterlife where souls in Hell or Purgatory have an opportunity to be saved and go to Heaven. Lewis is upfront in the Preface with the fact that the storyline does not fit either Protestant nor Catholic theology. If you focus on that aspect of the book, you will completely miss the point. The book's true application is to our lives here on earth.
Most of the book consists of interviews that the lost souls, or ghosts as Lewis calls them, have with spirits from Heaven. The spirits are trying to convince the ghosts to give up Hell and come on the journey to Heaven with them. In turn, each ghost has something that he or she is unwilling to give up in order to get into Heaven. For one it is pride in his own accomplishments. For another it is lust.
The most challenging to the readers is the ghost who will not give up the love for her dead son in order to get into Heaven. At first blush, it is hard to see how a mother's love for her son could be something that God would want surrendered to Him. Lewis expertly shows how even that love can become an idol worshiped over God.
The book made me think about what things I hold on to, my ball and chain, which keep me from experiencing a full and fulfilling relationship with God. Whether you are a believer or not, there are things in your life which, if you are honest, you are not willing to give up to put God first. Is it your wife, your children, work, lust, money? In the end, none of them bring more than fleeting satisfaction.
I know that I am most happy and satisfied when my first thoughts are of God and His will for my life. Unfortunately, those times are few and far between. My prayer is that I will become more consistantly focused on God so that He can, over time, remove each ball and chain that is holding me back from Him.
1 comment:
My favorite part of it is the observation that all of hell, which looks initially so looming and so huge, is revealed at the last to be a minor crack in the dust of God's good creation.
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