Sunday, January 04, 2009

C.S. Lewis... on Love

This right here beautifully sums up a lot of things i have been mulling over the last couple weeks:

"There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket--safe, dark, motionless, airless--it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell."
-C.S. Lewis

It's all about RISK people. What kind of risk are you willing to take to possibly love and be loved by another person? Is it worth it to stay safe inside yourself and feelings? Or to take a risk, with the possibility of failing or hurting?

"Are you afraid to be the only one to fail?
What's worse, to try and fail or never live to tell the tail?...
...When did the skeptics get to define you?"
-Elliot
Those are the lyrics to a song that is fast one the heels of my top favorite 5! They have been haunting me for about 3 weeks. What RISK am i willing to take to possibly live a dream? Should I just continue to sit and "wait" for life to hit me in the face or take action and embrace the life that God has given me? Should I let the opportunities to see something miraculous happen pass me by? If I let them fly by with the wind that won't stop blowing I know I will wonder and over-analyze "why" or "what if" until I fall asleep.

It's all about RISK people. What RISK are we going to take to see life, real life... and really if I fail... I know that God is still working to make me look more like Jesus, and perhaps the mud I attain from failing(falling) will actually make me more beautiful!
**Thanks and shout out to my good friend Elizabeth Fischer for reminding me of this quote from C.S. Lewis.**

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I like the Brooke Frasier song, Love is Waiting:

“...When it’s time to walk that way
We wanna walk it well"

"...And like I can’t force the sun to rise
Or hasten summer’s start
Neither should I rush my way into your heart"

"Love is waiting ‘til we’re ready
‘Til it’s right
Love is waiting”

Isn't it right to be afraid or at least quite cautious when you're dealing with someone else's life? What if my hopes don't match up with His plan for them. Shouldn't I wait for some suggestion that it's right, so I don't potentially interfere with His hopes for them?

- Anonymous

Jennifer Eileen Lankford said...

It is quite a thing to ponder indeed!

Finding the balance between taking risks and living wisely!

I do believe it is a godly thing to take risks, but I also believe that those risks are by far not meant to be aimless ones.

There is a beautiful dance between waiting for love, holding back "til it's right," and then letting it fly.

There is no point in shooting an arrow if there is no target.

I believe God would call us to take strategic risks! Risks that are driven by your every intention of hitting a bull's eye!

Not to shoot at anything that moves, but to draw your bow, find your target, take your aim...then when it is right you take the risk and let that arrow fly! But absolutely not a moment sooner!

Ladies, there's a lot of power packed behind our ability to love, and it is sent through us by God to a specific destination...it's our job to get it there intact!

We must save the momentum of risk taking for the moments when it does the most damage to the enemy's schemes!

Vicky said...

So, I've been thinking about this post all day. And Anon's comment above has given me even more to ponder...

I think there has to be a balance. We have to be willing to take the risk, but we also have to be sensitive to when it's time to wait. Sometimes God says "Jump, I promise I'll catch you!" and other times He says, "Sit down already!"

Of course, you and I have discussed this a few times in recent months. :) I love you, Cassie, and your willingness to take risks encourages me to do the same.

Also-- do you know which Lewis' book the quote is from? I feel like I read the passage recently. I'm currently reading "The Great Divorce" but I don't think it's from there. Of course, it could have just been quoted on another blog or a different book or something...

Carissa said...

i really like what Jennifer said:
there's no point in shooting an arrow if there's no target. so true.
great post Cass...