The Weight of Glory

“We are half-hearted creatures fooling 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.” This quote from Lewis’s essay Weight of Glory is what I want to address in this blog. So much of life is focused on the “pursuit of happiness” as we read before in Lewis’s other essay. However, the “happiness” that we find on earth is nothing but a temporary, very limited taste of the true happiness and pleasure we will find in heaven.
Without the knowledge of God, we are nothing but a child in the mud. We find small pleasure in the mud, and yet we are ignorant of the pleasure that sand could give us. Because we see no other alternative and would never of ourselves search for one, we are content to stay in the mud and get minimal pleasure when infinite pleasure in the sand could be found. We are far too easily contented with the tiny, instant pleasures that we don’t have to do much work for.
I also appreciate how Lewis brings out the enchanting nature of the world. The devil is pleased when we are content with the instant pleasures that this earthly realm can afford. We do not even realize how truly enchanting this world can be. Lewis states that need a spell to break free from the evil enchantments of worldliness. We must realize that we ourselves have not the strength to break free from these bonds of enchantment. In fact, if it were strictly up to us, we would be lost in the embrace of worldliness forever, content to simply find pleasure in the mud.