Random Thoughts about C.S. Lewis, trials, joy and contentment

Just taking a quick break to share my random thoughts.

I think C.S. Lewis was one of the most versatile, brilliant writers of his time and mine. I have been telling my husband for some time that his ideas almost parallel to Jerome's...especially the ones that don't fit into the church mold. Jerome and I have been listening to a book on CD. The writer compares Freud to C.S. Lewis. It starts by providing each of their backgrounds from child hood on. The writer explains how one accepts Christ and the other rejects Him. It is riveting. (Jerome now agrees that He and Lewis' views are freakishly similar.) I am also reading the Narnia series to Micah and reading a few other collections of his writings. I have been thinking more deeply and yet more simpler about my faith in Christ than any other writer has compelled me to do.

I am coming out of a hormone induced trial...I like to call those seasons PMS...they come faithfully every month. I have been thinking about trials...how when they come I still am shocked that everything goes from comfortable to frustrating in a short amount of time and it takes me a moment to pick myself up out of the pit of self-pity and remind myself that trials will always come and not to be so surprised by them. They are necessary to produce the things in me that I need in this life and in my relationship with God. They are to be welcomed and not rejected. I would be better to embrace them and pray for the strength to get thru them gracefully instead of praying for them to go away. His timing is perfect....my part is to abide in Him at all times, trial or not, right? Remind me of this next month please!

I have also been pondering true joy. Not earthly happiness that is here and then gone...always allusive and never possessing any real depth. God gave me the opportunity to stay the night with my sis-in-love who just had a sweet baby girl. My brother is in Iraq. They also have a precious boy under 2. You can imagine how her trial compares with mine. We sat up for a few hours after my nephew was in bed and talked. Not surface talk...the kind of conversation where you feel as though He were right there in your midst. Real, honest, transparent kind of conversation that changes you for the better. I then got to sleep in the same room with my brand-new niece and take care of her thru the night. She woke every two hours like newborns do. 45 minutes of each 2 hour slot was spent feeding, changing and marvelling God's goodness in sending her to my brother and Jenny...and to me and our families. She is an expression of His love to all of us. He is a miracle Maker. There was deep joy in knowing that my sweet sis-in-love was sleeping in the other room...soundly...uninteruppted so that she would wake up refreshed to His new mercies the next morning and that I was getting to stand in the gap for her in a small way. This is something that brought true, lasting, eternal joy.

I have been thinking about contentment. Godliness with contentment is great gain. Contentment in trials or joy. It is good...and attainable thru Him. Sometimes I am chasing after it and sometimes it envelops me. Worship is playing in the background...my house is semi-clean...my boys are having fun together...my mind is clear...my thoughts are on Him...I am content. Lord, in an hour if Blue's Clues is playing in the background....my house is all messed up...chaos is the tone of my house...and my thoughts are on the worries of this life...Let me learn to be content then too.

Thank you all for listening to my random thoughts. I will continue with my story tomorrow...Lord, willing.