Lewis: Refreshment on Our Journey

Problem of Pain 2Humans seem to want constant happiness and a sense of absolute security. Neither of those is attainable in this life. According to C. S. Lewis, we should be glad that they aren’t. He tells us why in The Problem of Pain:

The Christian doctrine of suffering explains, I believe, a very curious fact about the world we live in. The settled happiness and security which we all desire, God withholds from us by the very nature of the world: but joy, pleasure, and merriment He has scattered broadcast.

We are never safe, but we have plenty of fun, and some ecstasy. It is not hard to see why. The security we crave would teach us to rest our hearts in this world and oppose an obstacle to our return to God: a few moments of happy love, a landscape, a symphony, a merry meeting with our friends, a bathe or a football match, have no such tendency.

Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home.

Our secure home still awaits us when we have finished the course in this present world. As the old song goes, “This world is not my home; I’m just passing through.”