All of my tenants (as well as Sandy) are riding out the hurricane by watching TV in their respective rooms. I'm sitting in the dining room flipping through my Greek lexicon trying to translate 1 John from Greek into English in preparation for next week's daily translation quizzes. A small part of me is hoping that the power goes out so that I can continue by candlelight for that authentic early second century experience.
The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis is not among my favorite books, but in it he does highlight one eternal truth: some people prefer a self-inflicted, self-contained misery to an experience of grace. As an extremely brief synopsis, the main character is taken on an eschatological bus ride, during which he meets many fellow travelers, each of whom carries a perpetual cloud of cantankerousness over themselves. The bus departs from a land of dreary grays and eventually arrives at what is basically the Microsoft Windows wallpaper--rolling hills, green fields, blue skies--rich colors and lush scenery all around. Despite the improvement in their surroundings, his fellow travelers continue to find things to complain about. In fact, their bodies cannot physically adjust to the beauty of their new surroundings. While wandering through the greenery they discover that they are, in fact, ghosts who lack corporeal bodies. They cannot acclimate to the weightiness, the substantiveness of this new rea...

I love reading these. Enjoy your quest. Scofield out.
ReplyDeleteWait, are you still in summer session?
ReplyDelete@Toe-mas: For a second, I thought you were my mother [shakes head to clear image from brain], who comments under "Anonymous." Thanks for reading!
ReplyDelete@Peter: I finish this Friday. We have translation quizzes (1 John) every day this week. I also have the Bible Content Exam on Friday.