Apr
08
2009
Anything but God
“It is a dreadful truth that the state of having to depend solely on God is what we all dread most. And of course that just shows how very much, how almost exclusively, we have been depending on things. But trouble goes so far back in our lives and is now so deeply ingrained, we will not turn to him as long as he leaves us anything else to turn to. I suppose all one can say is that it was bound to come. In the hour of death and the day of judgment, what else shall we have? Perhaps when those moments come, they will feel happiest who have been forced (however unwittingly) to begin practicing it here on earth. It is good of him to force us; but dear me, how hard to feel that it is good at the time.”
C. S. Lewis, in The Quotable Lewis, #335.
HT: Dane Ortlund, John Scheidt
4 Comments
Thanks for this Ray – this is one of the timeliest comments I have come across. I recently found out I have cancer and have been forced to depend on God in ways I never wanted to in the past.
Thank you for this quote from Lewis.
Despite our ignorance or denial of this empirical fact, our entire existence and everything about it is contingent. There is a seeming parity of dependence shared by every creature as we are equally and utterly in need of God’s sustaining grace. Whether with life-threatening cancer or mere canker sores, our need never changes. For “in him we live and move and have our being.”
May God comfort you David Wayne and may he continue to show us all mercy.
Wow
Thank you so much, David. Thank you for bearing witness to the reality and sufficiency of God in all things, including cancer. God be with you.