Action, not inaction

Last night I started to read one of Sara's new favorite books, The Irresistible Revolution, by Shane Claiborne. I wasn't even through the forward yet and something caught my eye. Earlier in the day I was reading The Weight of Glory, by C.S. Lewis, to get the brain juices flowing before the GRE, and a line from Wallis' forward made me think of Lewis. I think they are both onto something significant.

Wallis said, "Defining faith by the things you won't do or question does not create a compelling style of life." I am not sure the having a 'compelling style of life' is necessarily the goal, but by the rest of the forward, I am guessing he was just a little loose with words there. He is right I think; faith should maybe be defined primarily in the positive, that is, by the things we DO and not by the things we shouldn't do.

Lewis said that if you were to ask 20 good men what the highest virtue was, they would say 'unselfishness.' He says that this is a very different answer than the Great Christians of old, because they would have replied 'love.' He goes on to say, "the negative idea of Unselfishness carries with it the suggestion not primarily of securing good things for others, but of going without them ourselves, as if our abstinence and not their happiness was the important point." His point is that the good is likely not found in us going without, but is likely found in us indulging in the desires and dreams that God has put into us as His creation. That is where the good is found, and that is where true love for the other is found. Indeed, I think Lewis is dead on in saying that, "it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak... We are far too easily pleased."

I hope that I live a life that reflects the fear of the Lord daily in all of my actions. I hope that I am never too easily pleased and that my faith life can be defined more by action than inaction. Seeing as I am only through the forward of this book, I am sure more thoughts are to follow.