Something that caught my eye in The Four Loves.....
I find Lewis' idea of need-love very interesting, especially when he relates it to our relationship with God. Our need-love of other people will end when the need is met and then no longer exist, however Lewis states our need-love for God is different.
"Our Need-love for God is in a different position because our need of him can never end either in this world or in any other. (Chapter 1)"
God gives gift-love to our need-love. I had never really thought of it in this light before. Even though most of us have grown up with the usual metaphors or analogies about God's love. But I can't help but think of a passage I read in the Problem of Pain:
"God wants to give us something, but cannot, because our hands are full--there's nowhere for Him to put it. (Chapter 7)"
This seems to lean on the idea that when things are going well and we rely on ourselves we deny God's gift-love relationship and deny our own need-love for him. God continually wishes to give us good things, but when the need-love isn't acknowledged how can he? This goes back more towards the Problem of Pain book but it definitely deals with God's gift-love and how we reconcile it with pain.
I realize that this idea isn't full formed but it was just something that was weighing on my mind. I would love to hear what everyone else thinks on this.
I find Lewis' idea of need-love very interesting, especially when he relates it to our relationship with God. Our need-love of other people will end when the need is met and then no longer exist, however Lewis states our need-love for God is different.
"Our Need-love for God is in a different position because our need of him can never end either in this world or in any other. (Chapter 1)"
God gives gift-love to our need-love. I had never really thought of it in this light before. Even though most of us have grown up with the usual metaphors or analogies about God's love. But I can't help but think of a passage I read in the Problem of Pain:
"God wants to give us something, but cannot, because our hands are full--there's nowhere for Him to put it. (Chapter 7)"
This seems to lean on the idea that when things are going well and we rely on ourselves we deny God's gift-love relationship and deny our own need-love for him. God continually wishes to give us good things, but when the need-love isn't acknowledged how can he? This goes back more towards the Problem of Pain book but it definitely deals with God's gift-love and how we reconcile it with pain.
I realize that this idea isn't full formed but it was just something that was weighing on my mind. I would love to hear what everyone else thinks on this.
posted by Emily at 8:46 AM
1 Comments:
Today, February 27th, in chapel Mrs. Watters talked on this subject, using different language, but still this same subject. She described the human need for God like a cup in our hearts that we try desperately to fill with anything but God, except God is the only thing that will ever fill our cup.
It can't be denied that despite having many or all of our need-loves satisfied (with the exception of our God-love-need) we are left still wanting more. Often we attempt to circumvent the need for God's love and fulfill ourselves through ideas of self-worth, but even the most seemingly confident and self-assured people have their inner doubts and feelings of inadequacy. So, obviously this is not a need that we can fulfill, nothing we try to do outside of Him is going to satisfy this need. So, once again I come back to the idea that this need, in part, helps to remind us that we cannot exist without God, He is essential to our being. We can't say, "Well God, thank you for creating me and all but I can take it from here." He won't allow us to push Him from our lives so easily. So, He created a longing that can only be filled by Him. Or perhaps this longing was not intentionally created, but is simply a by-product of our creation: we desire a relationship with our creator.
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