Friday, April 18, 2008

Sent to Try Us

On grieving the death of his wife:

How far have I got? Just as far, I think, as a widower of another sort who would stop, leaning on his spade, and say in answer to our inquiry, 'Thank'ee. Mustn't grumble. I do miss her something dreadful. But they say these things are sent to try us.' We have come to the same point; he with his spade, and I, who am not now much good at digging, with my own instrument. But of course one must take 'sent to try us' the right way. God has not been trying an experiment on my faith or love in order to find out their quality. He knew it already. It was I who didn't. In this trial he makes us occupy the dock, the witness box, and the bench all at once. He always knew that my temple was a house of cards. His only way of making me realize the fact was to knock it down.

~C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed (1961)

2 Comment(s):

At Fri Apr 25, 10:27:00 AM EDT, Blogger Martin LaBar said...

Right. God knows, but we don't, until we go through it.

 
At Wed Dec 01, 03:11:00 AM EST, Blogger Sungyak said...

one must marvel at lewis' faith, enabling him to see apart from his grief, at his grief.

 

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