Progressive Means Going Back
When we discover that our plans and ideas won't work, what do we do to find out where we went wrong? We backtrack. We go back to the beginning. C.S. Lewis stated in Mere Christianity, "We all want progress, but if you're on the wrong road, progress is doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive." Doesn't that fly in the face of what we usually think progressive means?
"Progressive" reminds me too of C.S. Lewis' vision of heaven in his book The Last Battle. This book is the last book of the Narnia series. In it, the end of Narnia comes and all of the kids who've been its kings and queens throughout the series end of in Narnia-heaven. They watch the complete destruction of Narnia, from stars to earth to utter blackness. They watch Aslan create the new Narnia - one that's somehow more real than the old, even though it has the same hills, trees, and waterfalls. Aslan calls to them, "Come further in! Come further up!" When they get to the center, a garden high up in the mountains, they find that there's a new and bigger Narnia inside the garden, as if Narnia were starting all over again.
Perhaps we think of progressive as moving on to something NEW and better, but when we say progressive, what we really want is something more pure, more holy, better, more fullfilling, and more meaningful than what currently exists.
Sometimes being progressive means moving back to the past. Understanding what women, men and marriage are supposed to be means going back to the past before the first big mistake. When we go back and look at the first marriage, what do we see that God wants for all of us?
Other times, progressive means moving farther into the truth, because instead of being more confining, when we get to the heart of a truth, it opens the world up in a way that makes it larger than before. For example, when we women learn to stop controlling our lives, our spouses, and our kids through our fear-filled attempts to protect ourselves from hurt, we give the control to God. Instead of ending up with less, we end up with more. When God holds the reigns, we discover that we've been limiting ourselves. God created each of us to be so much more than we're living in. It's like driving a car that goes 250 miles an hour around a race track at 30 miles per hour. We're not living in our full potential. I long to live the life of joy and strength that God offers me - if only I can stop grasping for control of my life.
"Progressive" reminds me too of C.S. Lewis' vision of heaven in his book The Last Battle. This book is the last book of the Narnia series. In it, the end of Narnia comes and all of the kids who've been its kings and queens throughout the series end of in Narnia-heaven. They watch the complete destruction of Narnia, from stars to earth to utter blackness. They watch Aslan create the new Narnia - one that's somehow more real than the old, even though it has the same hills, trees, and waterfalls. Aslan calls to them, "Come further in! Come further up!" When they get to the center, a garden high up in the mountains, they find that there's a new and bigger Narnia inside the garden, as if Narnia were starting all over again.
Perhaps we think of progressive as moving on to something NEW and better, but when we say progressive, what we really want is something more pure, more holy, better, more fullfilling, and more meaningful than what currently exists.
Sometimes being progressive means moving back to the past. Understanding what women, men and marriage are supposed to be means going back to the past before the first big mistake. When we go back and look at the first marriage, what do we see that God wants for all of us?
Other times, progressive means moving farther into the truth, because instead of being more confining, when we get to the heart of a truth, it opens the world up in a way that makes it larger than before. For example, when we women learn to stop controlling our lives, our spouses, and our kids through our fear-filled attempts to protect ourselves from hurt, we give the control to God. Instead of ending up with less, we end up with more. When God holds the reigns, we discover that we've been limiting ourselves. God created each of us to be so much more than we're living in. It's like driving a car that goes 250 miles an hour around a race track at 30 miles per hour. We're not living in our full potential. I long to live the life of joy and strength that God offers me - if only I can stop grasping for control of my life.
posted by Terri | 9:14 AM
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