A quote from C.S. Lewis came to me again a couple of different ways recently. “Aim at Heaven, and you will get earth ‘thrown in’: aim at earth, and you will get neither.”
How
often do we find we “aim at earth” and simply settle for what is,
rather than having what the Apostle Paul wrote about, the “exceedingly abundantly above
all we ask or think according to the power that works in us” (Ephesians 3:20).
It’s
easy to find ourselves in a spiraling pattern of acceptance not realizing what we
are relinquishing in the process.
I’m
not saying that if we do this, we will not have troubles. We will. What I mean
is that are eyes are on Jesus despite the sorrows and grief of this life. Our
hearts continue to long for God and what only He can do. Again, what we gain is
included in this Amplified version of Ephesians 3:20 “superabundantly more than all that we
dare ask or think (infinitely beyond our greatest prayers, hopes, or dreams).”
The
Lewis quote above appears in a chapter on hope in his book Mere
Christianity. In my dogeared copy which I’ve had for decades now and read
first in the early days after my full surrender to the Lord, that chapter is
much underlined with many penciled in scripture references. In fact, the back
of the book is almost broken there indicating it had been opened to
those pages countless times.
The
physical book itself tells the story. What I needed so desperately was this message
of hope that we should aim at heaven. I had been kind of a mess for a while,
and the whole focusing on the earth thing had not worked too well for me. It
was critically important for me to change my focus.
But
even after we do this, we can find ourselves growing tolerant of business as
usual and lose our passion for the Lord. Time to readjust our sights, again.
And
the power Paul talks about—let’s be reminded that if we belong to Him, the power that raised
Jesus from the dead lives in us. (Romans 8:11).
Now, there's a thought that should make us all sit at attention.
Let’s take the advice of C.S. Lewis and aim for heaven. I know if we do so, we’ll have many stories of what Priscilla Shirer calls God’s “beyond and beyond.”