Life is amazing. Each day is a new adventure. Each experience impacts us and molds or directs us. I'm rereading a C.S. Lewis book that I love, The Great Divorce, and as I read it I'm struck with how narrow we become over the course of our lives. It doesn't matter what you believe or don't believe. We become narrow because of the paths we choose. We narrow our choice of friends to those who make us comfortable. We narrow our beliefs. We narrow the ideas we will accept. We narrow to the point that a change in course is very difficult. I see it with the elderly all the time. They are either really sweet or horribly grumpy. There is no middle ground. Somewhere in their pasts they began to make choices that narrowed them and now they are so rigid in who they are, either good or bad, that change is impossible. That's why I mentioned C.S. Lewis' book a moment ago. It's a wonderful fiction about a bus ride from hell to heaven and the interaction between those on a day trip to heaven and the residents of heaven they encounter. As I read C.S. Lewis' amazing words and wit it strikes me....they have become so narrow in every area of their lives that they cannot change! They have chosen their course, decided who they are, become rigid in their thinking and can't change! I see this in the religious, the atheist and the wicked. Each of us make choices that narrow us to the point we can't, won't and wouldn't change...even when we hear the truth. As one who is becoming narrow myself I am aware of how hard it is to once more consider new thoughts and directions. I think that's why the debate between atheist and Christian is often just for entertainment value. Neither will win the day or change the other...they both have become so narrow they can't change....but what a show it provides for us. So, where does this all bring me? Key to these thoughts is the truth that choices matter. Each choice, each belief is narrowing us down into who we will be till the day we die. It's vital that those little choices, those little decisions be the right ones because they are carving our eternity for us. Becoming narrow is a reality for each of us. Choose well. Choices are hard to repent of once you get down the road a few miles. Jesus described it this way, "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and road is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it."
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1 comment:
This is a sad truth. I, too, see it in myself. Living with a younger generation -1 and -2 I can see a huge difference. I really am very set in my ways and my thought patterns. My son and his wife are still seeking "truth" in many areas, but they want ANSWERS that they can then count as their own. Any my grandchildren...oh my. They are so open to everything...little sponges...ready to learn and be molded by those whom they trust. Do I REALLY have all the answers? I need to be more like both my son and his wife...searching. And like my grandchildren...ready to be molded by my Father.
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