Naked

C. S. Lewis has a collection of readings called The Business of Heaven. His reading for January 8th created a sense of deep humility in me. This simple thought also convicted me. It caused me to ponder the purpose of my daily living. I am counting this thought as a star for 2014.

When any man comes in the presence of God he will find, whether he wishes it or not, that all those things which seemed to make him so different from the men of other times, or even from his earlier self, have fallen off him. He is back where he always was, where every man always is.... No possible complexity which we can give to picture of the universe can hide us from God: there is no copse, no forest, no jungle thick enough to provide cover.... In the twinkling of an eye, in a time too small to be measured, and in any place, all that seems to divide us from God can flee away, vanish, leaving us naked before Him, like the first man like the only man, as if nothing but He and I existed. And since that contact cannot be avoided for long and since it meas either bliss or horror, the business of life is to learn to like it. That is the first and great commandment.

Challenged yet? Do you realize that one day you and God will stand face to face? Do you realize that no excuse that you could possibly make will be of any good on that day? Therefore, the only logical step after such a realization is to live for Him completely, unreservedly, for this is "the first and great commandment."