We Belong Elsewhere

From a short essay by Lewis called 'On Living in an Atomic Age,' expressing a key theme of Lewis' engagement with Naturalism/Atheism/Evolutionism:

Really, the naturalistic conclusion is unbelievable.

For one thing, it is only through trusting our own minds that we have come to know Nature herself. If Nature when fully known seems to teach us (that is, if the sciences teach us) that our own minds are chance arrangements of atoms, then there must have been some mistake; for if that were so, then the sciences themselves would be chance arrangements of atoms and we should have no reason for believing in them.

There is only one way to avoid this deadlock. We must go back to a much earlier view. We must simply accept it that we are spirits, free and rational beings, at present inhabiting an irrational universe, and must draw the conclusion that we are not derived from it. We are strangers here. We come from somewhere else. Nature is not the only thing that exists. There is 'another world,' and that is where we come from.

And that explains why we do not feel at home here. A fish feels at home in the water. If we 'belonged here' we should feel at home here. All that we say about 'Nature red in tooth and claw,' about death and time and mutability, all our half-amused, half-bashful attitude to our own bodies, is quite inexplicable on the theory that we are simply natural creatures. If this world is the only world, how did we come to find its laws either so dreadful or so comic?

If there is no straight line elsewhere, how did we discover that Nature’s line is crooked?

--C. S. Lewis, 'On Living in an Atomic Age,' in Present Concerns (London: Fount, 1986), 78-79 (italics original)

Love

Paul Miller on "A Loving Life" from Crossway on Vimeo.

Our Words, Our Identity

In rereading James recently I wondered if our speech is the integrating theme of really everything James says, even though he seems to hop from one topic haphazardly to the next. Throughout, James gives the impression: what we say isn't an aspect of what defines us and what kind of religion we have, but comprehends the whole.

So as I am now in Luke I was struck by the way Jesus concludes his teaching on a tree being known by its fruit in Luke 6. I have always read this tree/fruit thing to be a statement about our deeds, practically speaking. Just as a healthy tree produces healthy fruit, a healthy heart produces healthy deeds.

But notice what Jesus actually says: "The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks" (Luke 6:45). 

We are defined by our words. Our words are who we are. I don't mean identity-definition in a gospel sense, our identity as sons and daughters of God, in defiance of our word-failings. A less ultimate but no less comprehensive identity: what I say is who I am. I simply have nothing else. Maybe that's why James says that whoever can tame the tongue is perfect, complete (James 3:2).

Mark 10:45

The Army Grows

Things have been quiet around here as my wife Stacey and I have welcomed our fourth Ortlund offspring into the world, our first daughter, Chloe. Here she is with her brothers. She will be available for dating at age 30, upon screening of suitors.