Ever since the discussion I had with friends about a month ago on glorifying God as the purpose of life, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about glory. What really is glory? How do we give it to God? What does it truly look like to glorify God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength? If glorifying God is the only reason we exist, why do we spend so much time glorifying ourselves? Since I had been thinking so much about the topic of glory, I decided to read C.S. Lewis’s “The Weight of Glory” – aka, the best essay ever written. Although Lewis is talking about the glory that God will give to man while I had been thinking about the glory we will give to God, I believe that the two ideas really coincide and I think, perhaps, that they may also answer some of my questions.
In the end, God will say either one of two things – 1.) “Well done my good and faithful servant” or 2.) “I never knew you. Depart from Me.” Both are quite extreme, and it doesn’t require much thinking to see the why. On one hand, God will have found pleasure in you, will love and cherish you, will accept you for everything you are – God, as in the God of the universe, the God who sent His only son to die, the God who invented sunsets… will be pleased with you and what you have done! How wonderfully glorious! Like Lewis says in his “Weight of Glory,” this pleasure seems unachievable coming from God towards us… “To please God… to be a real ingredient in the divine happiness […] – it seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain. But so it is” (Lewis 39). When we do follow what He says and love Him wholeheartedly, He can be pleased with us and can you even imagine how fulfilled we would be then?! In all honesty, can there be anything more fulfilling than hitting the target for which we were created to hit? When God says, “Well done,” He’s being serious… you served Him and you did it well – Congrats from the Big Guy. Wow!
On the other hand, God could find disappointment in you and your actions. He could officially banish you from His presence forever… and after that, what is there to live for? If the only One worth living for won’t even recognize you and, thus, can’t accept you – you are out… way out. “We can be both banished from the presence of Him who is present everywhere and erased from the knowledge of Him who knows all. We can be left utterly and absolutely outside–repelled, exiled, estranged, finally and unspeakably ignored” (Lewis 41). There aren’t even words to describe how much of an outsider you will have pushed yourself into becoming, but the main point is that rejection by God is the ULTIMATE WORST event that could ever transpire.
In essence, our whole lives are a progression towards one extreme or the other – ineffable glory or intolerable rejection. And every interaction we have with other people pushes them one step further into either direction. That is why every single action counts; every single action pushes us one step farther and, I don’t know about you, but I’m striving for ineffable glory rather than its alternative. I think this is part of what “Love the Lord your God with ALL your heart, soul, mind, and strength” really means. When we love Him with ALL of who we are, that love will naturally pour out into every little thing that we do – our actions, attitudes, words, behaviors, thoughts… and when we our pouring out our love to God with every single part of our lives, He will ultimately be glorified and we, in turn, will be fulfilling our purpose as human beings. As a result, God will be pleased with us, will welcome us into His presence, and will give us glory (glory, here, as in recognition by Him). It’s a cycle, I think; when we glorify Him, He glorifies us, and when He glorifies us, we have more glory to bestow upon Him as He rightfully deserves. Accordingly, the more we learn to love God wholeheartedly in every area of our lives, the more we both are glorified for His ultimate glory.
*Thoughts provoked mainly from The Weight of Glory, by C.S. Lewis, God's Plans for You, by J.I. Packer, discussions with friends, and conversations with God.
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