The Weight of Glory

In the beginning of the weigh of glory, Lewis examines our understanding of who we are as believers. In his first conclusion, he explored our thoughts on desires. To Lewis it is clear that as creatures of the creator, we sometimes believe that our desires are to high, but as Lewis stated "We are half-hearted creatures," we fool around in gutters making mud pies because we do not understand that there is something much more better. I see this clearly in our culture today.

We are creature who do not understand the beauty of real things, so we seek after imitation. We are far to cowardly to fight for anything that matters, so we seek the fulfillment of manliness in playing with toy soldiers conquering plastic fortresses or watching two gladiators in UFC facing off against one another as we beckon our favorite fighter to victory, so we too, can feel the glory of conquering our foe, all the while, in our spiritual lives, we are broken, defeated and fail to understand that with us stands a God who has giving us the tools needed to stand victorious against such attacks. In search of the meaning of love, we look to Edward and Jacob (in stories) to show us what love looks like and we eagerly await the response of Belle while hoping she would choose based on our lustful desires of who has a better looking body. Our hearts melt when we hear some cheesy line on screen from a man who says to a girl "I can't live without you," and say to ourselves "why can't I find love like that," all the while neglecting the greatest showing of love on the cross as our savior declares us Princes and Princesses of the most high King. It seems we are far to in love with imitations of real joys to look up and see him give himself for us on the cross.

As Lewis says, If we just understood that each individual standing before us could, in the next life, look like something we might, in this life, be tempted to worship; then, we might begin to catch of glimpse of just how important we are.

Another issue raised in the weight of glory is just how unsatisfying this world is compared to the next. For centuries, the devil has being trying to draw our focus away from the promises of the next world by trying to convince us that this world is the one that really matters most. As a result, we chase after meaningless things like drink, sex, and money in other to fulfill what such things cannot. If only we would focus on the hopes and promises of our savior, our hearts would be lined up with the things that he cares about, like taking care of widows and orphan in their distress. We further attempt to expand the important of this world over the next by clinging to such finite things as culture, arts, and civilization while refusing to assign to people the level of importance they deserve.

Perhaps one day we will learn to put all things in their proper place. Stop worshiping the earth and it material things and begin to sing praises to the God who made all things and who deserves the praise. Stop looking at one another as if we were nothing more than the lowest animal. Then and then might we begin to feel the weight of glory.