Destined To Be Different
Destined To Be Different
By Amitabh Singh
Two Reflection Questions:
What are the areas in my life where I have conformed to the world?
What are the opportunities God is giving me to help transform our world?
If you have never read “Mere Christianity” by C.S. Lewis, I strongly encourage you to pick up a copy and read it. Six thoughts below are from this book and provide wonderful points for deeper reflection.
What on earth is God up to? C.S. Lewis: “Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof, and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way hurts abominably and not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to?”
Are you okay about him living with you? C.S. Lewis: “He is building quite a different house from one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage; but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”
Where are you looking for answers to your problems? C.S.Lewis: “A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.”
Why does this world not satisfy you? C.S. Lewis: “If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”
Do you trust Him enough to take his advice? C.S. Lewis: “To have Faith in Christ means, of course, trying to do all that He says. There would be no sense in saying you trusted a person if you would not take his advice. Thus if you really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him. But trying in a new way, a less worried way.”
If I am destined to be different, what must I do? C.S. Lewis: “Give me all of you!!! I don’t want so much of your time, so much of your talents and money, and so much of your work. I want YOU!!! ALL OF YOU!! I have not come to torment and frustrate the natural man or woman, but to KILL IT! No half measures will do. I don’t want to only prune a branch here and a branch there; rather I want the whole tree out! Hand it over to me, the whole outfit, all of your desires, all of your wants and wishes and dreams. Turn them ALL to me, give yourself to me and I will make you a new self - - - in my image. Give me yourself and in exchange I will give you Myself. My will, shall become your will. My heart, shall become your heart.”