joy and sleep [not necessarily in that order]

[I got up early to study before my test. I think it went okay...I'll keep you updated. This is why I'm thinking about sleep though.]

Kali posted yesterday about happiness vs. joy and what she's been thinking about joy. I found this interesting because I had been reading a few things C.S. Lewis [or as his friends call him, Jack] had to say on the subject. I know in Mere Christianity he says that God designed the "human machine" to run on Himself [as opposed to running on happiness]. In God in the Dock he says the following: Which of the religions of the world gives to its followers the greatest happiness? While it lasts, the religion of worshipping oneself is the best. ... as you perhaps know I haven't always been a Christian. I didn't go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that." This last one really got me thinking because I find myself often turning to God for this kind of happiness-- not because I am depending on Him solely, but because I am depending on Him in order that He will make me happy.

Interestingly, Lewis describes Joy as a type of longing in most of his writings-- that after one experiences it, it then fosters "intense longings...this hunger is better than any other fullness; this poverty better than all other wealth. " In this we see that possibly, on this earth, we are never fully satiated with joy but filled with a deeper longing for it which we will one day find. I think Lewis' best word picture of this is in The Weight of Glory, he says: ...We are half-hearted creatures, folly-ing about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. If this is true [and from my experience I know it is], joy on this earth is not unattainable...it is simply something to which we don't attain. [these are ramblings of my thoughts, Kali's was much more thought out and better articulated.]

now comes the part where I sleep...
I think I'll post some more of my writings later today, as people have been prompting me to do so.