Thursday, October 8, 2009

enjoyment overflows into praise


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I spent a little while under the bright sun with my art history text the other day. It was beautiful--a little breezy, sunny, and green with the tint of autumn colors. Oh, how I adore some quiet, contemplative moments in the grass. The delight I felt made me think of this quote:

"But the most obvious fact about praise—whether of God or anything—strangely escaped me. I thought of it in terms of compliment, approval, or the giving of honor. I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise...

The world rings with praise—lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favorite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favorite game...My whole, more general, difficulty about the praise of God depended on my absurdly denying to us, as regards the supremely Valuable, what we delight to do, what indeed we can't help doing, about everything else we value. I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation."

(C.S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms, 94-95)


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