The Great Divorce

"There have been men before now who got so interested in proving the existence of God that they came to care nothing for God Himself... as if the good Lord had nothing to do but exist! There have been some who were so occupied spreading Christianity that they never gave a thought to Christ.  Man! Ye see it in smaller matters.  Did ye never know a lover of books that with all his first editions and signed copies had lost the power to read them?  Or an organiser of charities that had lost all love for the poor?  It is the subtlest of all the snares." - C.S. Lewis

I just finished reading The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis on this wonderful sunny day in february that tells me spring is so close! The book deals with a man who finds himself in the midst of ghosts and spirits who are roaming through Heaven and Hell. The man meets a teacher who takes him on an adventure and lets him hear conversations between many of the supernatural beings surrounding them.  Through their conversations he learns of many of the consequences of our behavior on earth.  The ghosts represent those who are unsaved and the spirits are the ones who have made it into Heaven.  Many of the ghosts receive surprises when they see who has become one of them and who is now a spirit.  The spirits are now trying to tell the ghosts of the love of God and all the joy they will experience if they choose to accept their new knowledge and live forever in Heaven.  The more knowledge they attain the more visible they become. However, many of them choose to stay in Hell because at least there they are able to have some control. The teacher quotes Milton in explaining the reason behind their choice saying, "Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven." They are willing to stay miserable for this power because they just don't comprehend the joy they could experience in Heaven.  The ghosts have not "felt" or understood the nature of God, His love, and the freedom we are given.

The quote above is my favorite from the book.  I want to fall in love with God and His Son more so than I care to understand theology or the "religion" of Christianity.  It does no good to just learn all the facts and ideas behind Christianity, if you do not feel the love and freedom God offers through a true relationship with Him so much that our personal experience and actions show more of the nature of Christ to unbelievers than the amount of pure facts we can spit out at them.