Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Letters From Your Host (2)


I am attempting to do what C.S. Lewis did in "The Screwtape Letters" (I highly recommend this read), only I am going in the reverse, characterizing angels, not demons.


Our Dearest Company,

Thank you for your reply. We are glad to hear you found our last response helpful and trust you are still doing well in the full vigor of your external life.

We have heard that you have expressed to the Father a desire to know His will for you. We are confused, what do you mean by His will?

Do you not know His will? We think that you do. His will is that you love Him first, and love others second. Grow. Connect. Serve. Today. Be mindful, lest you forget: you are stuck in time. Physically, you cannot skip ahead of it or return to it. Your existence is based on this moment. Right now.

Yet, with your mind, you time travel constantly. So often you reflect on the past with longing and the future with anxiety. Why should you waste your present moments so? If there is such a deep desire to know God's will for your life, why do you waste it thinking of what you will do someday, and not this day. Why do you worry you will not be useful to God? You paralyze your life at this very moment.

According your world's judgement, the Father wastes his saints. You think, "I must go here because here I will be the most use to Him." Yet, the Son never measured his life by how or where He was the greatest use. God places His saints where they will bring him the most glory, and you are totally incapable of judging where that might be.*

Be careful not to view yourself fulfilling the will of God after this stage of your life. There is only one stage of your life: right now. Yesterday does not exist. Tomorrow has never been. The moment you had ten minutes ago is gone forever. All you have is now.

It amazes us how you forget your own mortality. Here, where we are there is no sense of time nor death. We have a beginning with no end. Yet, you trust your life will continue on forever, like ours. It won't. You have no way of knowing when the inevitable end will come. What if you had died yesterday? What if you were to die in five minutes? Do you now understand how vain it is to measure your worth by the things you plan to do tomorrow? Tomorrow does not exist. It is merely a concept in your mind, a word in your language. Your life, your reality, is in this day. Spend it well for you will never receive it back.

We wish you the best. You can expect to hear from us again soon.

Most sincerely,
Your host

"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you" (1 Thes. 5:16-18, ESV. Emphasis added).

*Inspired by My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers
--
{dm}

2 comments: