R.A.D.I.C.A.L. Thoughts
"In retrospect all these exercises in self-gratification seem pure fantasy, what Pascal called 'licking the earth.' They are diversions designed to distract our attention from the true purpose of our existence in this world, which is, quite simply, to look for God, and, in looking, to find Him, and having found Him, to love Him, thereby establishing a harmonious relationship with His purposes for His creation."
Malcolm Muggeridge, journalist, man of letters extraordinaire
Today, I'm going to just quote something from A Twentieth Century Testimony by Malcolm Muggeridge. I have just recently discovered this writer and I am taken with his honesty and his ability to communicate over the decades. He has been a man about town, so to speak, an urbane personality who wrote and edited many secular publications and only near the end of his life did he begin to open up to the God question. For the blog today, I'm just going to quote what he says about the hard times in life ... about their value ... about their bigger purpose. What he says resonates with me because I too have learned more through this suffering of divorce than I learned in all the sermons I ever listened to. And it's scary that some people see the suffering as only something to be endured and survived, when in reality, it is the very thing that brings us closer to God and that means more in harmony with all of God's creation and more full of love, joy, peace and all of the good things God offers. This divorce experience has absolutely changed my life for the better. I didn't recognize that fact during all the sobbing and screaming, but it was true nonetheless. Here is what Muggeridge has to say about suffering: "Indeed, I can say with compelete truthfulness that everything I have learned in my seventy-five years in this world, everything that has truly enhanced and enlightened my existence, has been through affliction and not through happiness, whether pursued or attained. In other words, if it ever were to be possible to eliminate affliction from our earthly existence by means of some drug or other medical mumbo jumbo, as Aldous Huxley envisaged in Brave New World, the result would not be to make life delectable, but to make it too banal and trivial to be endurable."
"We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials for we know that they are good for us--they help us learn to be patient. And patience develops strength of character in us and helps us trust God more each time we use it until finally our hope and faith are strong and steady. Then, when that happens, we are able to hold our heads high no matter what happens and know that all is well, for we know how dearly God loves us, and we feel this warm love everywhere within us because God has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love."
Romans 5:3-5 (The Living Bible)
