Spiritual Experiences and Maps
C.S. Lewis had a friend who had a spiritual experience in the desert. He concluded from this that the only true religion is found in nature; that church and doctrines are simply an invention of man. Of this, C.S. Lewis wrote:
“Merely learning and thinking about the Christian doctrines, if you stop there, is less real and less exciting than the sort of thing my friend got in the desert. Doctrines are not God: they are only a kind of map. But the map is based on the experience of hundreds of people who really were in touch with God – experience compared with which any…feelings you and I are likely to get on our own are very elementary and very confused. And secondly, if you want to get any further, you must use the map.
You see, what happened to the man in the desert may have been real, and was certainly exciting, but nothing comes of it. It leads nowhere. There is nothing to do about it. In fact, that is just why a vague religion – all about feeling God in nature, and so on – is so attractive. It is all thrills and no work; like watching the waves from the beach. …You will not get eternal life by simply feeling the presence of God in flowers or music.
“You [will not] get anywhere by looking at maps without going to sea. Nor will you be very safe if you go to sea without a map.”
“It is easy for us to want to seek after an easy religion. In the example above, Nature provided an easy religion – one requiring no work or sacrifice. These easy religions have drawn flocks of followers, and it is no wonder why. The problem is, these…do not have the power to exalt. The religions whose God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son…was not any easy religion – just the true one.
posted by Marci at 9:48 PM
1 Comments:
P.S. What I get from this:
1 - There are a variety of ways to know God, however, we cannot rely on any one of those to be the sum of our faith. This is why we must have firsthand religion (personal experience with God and/or the Spirit of God) AND second-hand religion (the spiritual experiences of others as written in the Holy Scriptures – containing accounts of revelation far greater and more extensive than anything I have experienced). Either of these, alone, are not enough.
The basis of my faith lies in both first and second-hand knowledge, (feelings, experience, study, church) that it's hard to pinpoint it just one reason for my faith. Which is why, when someone is looking for an answer to the question: why have faith? Why do you believe in God?...I don't know that there exists a simple answer to that.
2 - We must simultaneously trust in what we’ve been given (simple as it may be) – yet continue to be pursuing a deeper knowledge, a deeper testimony, a deeper level of commitment. We can't wait until we know everything before we act. At some point, we have to trust in the little that we have in order to gain more. I'm sure that there is a great deal more to learn about the gospel, but I will never access that knowledge unless I invest faith and action in what I have now. (Just like I'm sure there is a lot more I could be doing to be healthy -- but if I wait until I know it all, I'll be too unhealthy to put it all into practice.) Simple steps, small -- but they change me, preparing mre for the next step -- which would be too hard/too big if I didn't take the initial ones.
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