sudden realization

Lewis tells us about a sudden realization he has today in A Year with C.S. Lewis.

His realization is about glory. He suddenly comes to the conclusion that glory really does mean "being famous", but in this case, famous with God. What's interesting is that Lewis seems to resist the idea of glory meaning "lighting up" like a lightbulb... even though we see this happen multiple times in the Bible - Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration... Moses on Sinai...

But for me, the take home lesson was not the realization itself... it is the nature of realizations altogether. You've had them, haven't you? When you're praying... or even just thinking... about something regarding your life. And suddenly it's like the clouds part and the light shines on you and you KNOW. You see something about yourself that you've never seen before. It seems so obvious, and yet it's never occurred to you before.

God does this for us in the most amazing way. He is so very gentle and kind when He shows us things about ourselves. It's almost exciting to realize what He's showing us... even though sometimes what He shows us isn't very flattering. He gently reveals our mistaken thinking... our faulty presuppositions... in just such a way that we're delighted to leave our old way of thinking behind and move to the truth.

I'm fairly certain you've experienced this before. And I'm also pretty sure you've experienced the opposite. The opposite is when the enemy accuses us. When we think of all the dumb and wrong things we've done in our lives, and feel horrible about it. When we find ourselves losing hope of becoming a better person. That's NOT how God teaches us. That's when we're being attacked. And I strongly suggest that when you start feeling like that, don't make any major decisions. Instead, focus on what you know is good and true, and just let yourself get through the time without thinking too much. Because if we listen when the enemy is accusing us, and make life choices then, we will find ourselves making choices we later regret.

God, thank You for gently revealing truth to us, and for teaching us not to make big decisions when we're under attack.