The Weight of Glory

This wonderful book by C.S. Lewis is a lot to digest! Have you read it? You must! I need to keep rereading it. Before I get into talking a bit about it, I want to ask you a question that will help to get you thinking about this marvelous book: what is your definition of glory? How would you explain God's glory, for example?

Lewis defines glory as fame. This definition particularly grabbed my attention. Much like the original response that Lewis had in his preliminary interpretation, I thought 'glory' to be a convoluted concept. I mean, what is it? It's difficult for me to wrap my arms around it and 'call it like it is'. On my first read, when Lewis brought up the idea that glory meant fame, I immediately responded negatively, after all, isn't fame bad!? (I so often see fame linked with Hollywood and self-promotion and the like. God is not famous, is He?.) However, as Lewis “warmed up” to the idea, I, too, became more comfortable with it. (And since I first read the book, Chris Tomlin's song, "Famous One", was written and it has truly helped me to understand God's glory even more.)

The book also talks a lot about the "approval” or “appreciation” of God. Is this something that you desire? I know for me, it is something that I long for in my life more than anything else. As Lewis noted, this view is from Scripture. “Nothing can eliminate from the parable the divine accolade, ‘Well done, thou good and faithful servant.’”

Oh how I long to hear those words from the mouth of my Savior. Don't you?? I long to receive approval and appreciation from my God in heaven. There is no doubt that the most fundamental issue is NOT how we think of God but rather how He thinks of us, as Lewis asserts. For us to appreciate God is important, yes. However, for a Christian that desires to know God deeply on a personal level, this appreciation of God is presupposed. Far more important is whether or not God appreciates us. (I know what the Bible says, but how I feel about my actions and whether or not God could actually approve of me, is so much harder to trust in faith. This is especially true of new believers who feel so unworthy to know God...like He's mad that they still mess up.) There is some good in taking an introspective look at our lives, though. I mean, would God approve of the actions and words that I chose, today, to make my own? Was I glorifying to Him in each of my endeavors today? Would today prove worthy of the words, “Well done, my good and faithful servant”? Though my answers might be 'No' and I can still receive the acceptance and love of God just as readily as if my answers were 'Yes', asking the questions is helpful for me in my pusuit of holiness. Yes, these are weighty questions—Lewis acknowledges that fact, himself. However, these are questions that we can ask ourselves in order to better understand this idea of glorifying God to the fullest. (Again, just to make sure you get what I said here: God loves you no matter what. If you had the worst day ever, He could not love you any less. That truth is freeing to me. Use these questions as a desire to increase the glory of God on a daily basis, and if they don't help you, chuck 'em.)

“The promise of glory is the promise, almost incredible and only possible by the work of Christ, that some of us, that any of us who really chooses, shall actually survive that examination, shall find approval, shall please God. To please God…to be a real ingredient in the divine happiness…to be loved by God, not merely pitied, but delighted in as an artist delights in his work or a father in a son—it seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain. But so it is.”

My struggle with applying how to be glorifying to God comes from the deeply rooted selfishness within me. I can be described with Lewis’ words on page 26: “We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at sea. We are far too easily pleased.” Why can’t I see the infinite joy that comes from pleasing my God in heaven? Why do I think that I know what is best for myself? Why do I act with such half-heartedness when it is the true desire of my heart to glorify God in all that I do? Why do I fall back on my own strength, my own desires, when I have the arms of the all-powerful God around me to support me each day, in each trial? What is keeping me from glorifying God?

Help me, Father, to seek you each and every day and to bring glory to your name. Help me to learn to live my life continually longing to hear the words, “Well done, my good and faithful servant,” though I will never be worthy of them. Oh Lord, this is my desire!

I pray you'll join me in my pursuit to glorify our LORD! Bless you!