This quote comes from "Orthodoxy" and the chapter entitled: The Ethics of Fairy Land. For those who have children, I think it's a wonderful perspective on how to show children the Biblical morals/tenants of most common fairy-tales:
"I call this the Doctrine of Conditional Joy. According to Elfin ethics all virtue is an "if." The note of the fairy utterance always is, "You may live in a palace of gold and sapphire, IF you do not say the word 'cow,' or "you may live happily with the King's daughter, IF you do not show her an onion." The vision always hangs up on a veto. All the dizzy and colossal things conceded depend upon one small thing withheld.
In the fairy tale an incomprehensible happiness rests upon an incomprehensible condition. A box is opened, and all evils fly out. A word is forgotten, and cities perish. A lamp is lit, and love flies away. A flower is pucked, and human lives are forfeited. An apple is eaten, and the hope of God is gone."
My favorite part of this quote is "an incomprehensible happiness rests upon an incomprehensible condition." That condition is God's love for me, His glory, and His mercy. How utterly astounding that He would even care about my happiness or my joy! How it baffles me that at the same time we operate in a world of "if this, then that" - where consequences are real and our obedience vital in the raging spiritual battle - yet still God is sovereign. As Spurgeon once said (forgive the rough paraphrase), I know not where human responsibility and God's sovereignty meet except on the anvil of heaven.
Though God be absolutely sovereign, as Zimmer's message last night affirmed, our obedience MATTERS. Though God forgives and brings good out of our mistakes, yet it MATTERS! We have lost the gravity of obedience - we no longer fear the righteousness of God - we carry about our Arks in wheelbarrows and hoard blessings and gifts with no fear of lightning bolts or earthquakes. The consequences of Fairy Tales are absolute: if you prick your finger, you will sleep; if you eat the apple, you will die; if you stay out past midnight, you will once again have a pumpkin. Fairy Tales reflect (brokenly) the divine truth of God's word - the consequences are absolute. As the speaker at last year's Women Retreat said, "you can always choose the sin, but you cannot choose the consequences."
Live today and this week like your obedience matters - to show Christ to this dying world, to defeat the enemy's attacks, and to glorify God in all you say, do, think, and feel.
7 comments:
Way to go baby oh! You are brilliant and well spoken/written. It is a great call we have to be obedient in times darkness and sin. Thanks for the call to fight once again. To take up arms and be ever prepared to attack and defend, but more importantly to always on the offensive. The last paragraph reminds me of Gal.6:7-9, we reap what we sow.
Hallo Leila, I found your blog quite interesting, there are a lot of issues I'm also developping in my wrtings, therefore your blog - and the title you choosed - seem to stimulate some kind of new thoughts, or even old ones reached walking on a different path
I will come back
Tak :-)
Hi Leila, how nice that you came by...
well god bless you in italian is "dio ti benedica" but it is not used, unless you are a priest and even in that case it sound somehow strange...
perhaps because italy in spite of the roman catholic church is a lay country
"to show Christ to this dying world" i really like how you worded that. that remmined me of a verse also. Phil. 1:20-21. jsut to show Christ through you to other people. love ya!
what makes me happy and surprises me all the time is that God loves me, loves me inspite of all my mistakes and unclearness
therefore there is no "incomprehensible condition.", I'm not bound to be "perfect", I can forget the word, eat that apple, lit the lamp, and do whatever it happens me to do and being wrong, incredibly wrong
yet God loves me...
isn't it beautiful?!
Tak,
I suppose the "incomprehensible condition" is that God's love is *so* great (I'm reminded of what I read in Psalms this moning that as far as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His lovingkindness). He loves enough to send His son to pay for *my* sins. It makes no sense - but it's staggeringly beautiful.
Yet what I was musing on in the Blog is that there are always consequences for mistakes - in the case of Christians, those mistakes are covered by Christ's blood - but His death was the consequence of our sin. And though I be forgiven, still I sin, and still that must hurt my God. Thus knowing I'm forgiven, I don't act with the reverence due Him - I dismiss sin too easily instead of being broken over it. I forget I am in a spiritual war, and I need to fight - that, in light of forgiveness, obedience still matters.
I completely agree with you Leila, there are always consequences to our mistakes - or sins - yet we are so fortunate that God loves us!
But you are very right indeed when you write: "I forget I am in a spiritual war, and I need to fight - that, in light of forgiveness, obedience still matters."
How true!
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