Go Ahead, and Read the Books YOU Like
When was the last time you felt real pleasure?
Pleasure that reminded you of what it was like taking your first lick of ice cream as a child. Pleasure that resembled the goosebumps covering your arms as you watched the sun set across the horizon in an array of burgundy and orange. The pleasure that escaped your mouth as you ran into the sand and felt the waves lap upon the shore between your toes.
Real pleasure.
I’m afraid that we often forget the simple joys of life in our attempt to be sophisticated, mature, and knowledgable. We read only the books others tell us we should read. We watch the shows the critics recommend, and then wonder why we fall asleep at night more empty and exhausted than before.
We exercise for the sake of losing weight, and forget that a brisk walk for the sake of the walk itself does wonder for the soul. We eat the food en vogue and swallow down the bitter truth, we don’t really like it at all.
We forget our true selves.
It’s not a new concept. You can find it as a theme in C.S. Lewis’s writings. This idea of becoming someone we are not. We substitute worldly standards for our real likings. And the tragedy is that YOU are lost in the process.
TO LOSE OURSELVES IS TO NOT LOSE OUR TRUEST SELVES
The beauty of the Gospel is that when we come to Christ and become wholly His, we become more ourselves than ever before. When we lose ourselves for the sake of the Gospel, we become more whole. The Creator of the universe formed us distinctly and intimately with a unique purpose in mind. When we come to Him, and die to ourselves, we find that the death actually brings life to the self He created.
There is no fear in love. We need not fear the surrender of our lives because we can rest assured He is waiting to give it back to us in all its fullness. He wants us to be true to our own natural instincts. The things that brought you joy as a child are often the things He uniquely created in you to flourish and bloom.
Did you enjoy picking flowers as a child or love watching the birds call to one another from across the trees? Were you aware of the colors of the sunrise each morning as your mother drove you to school? These are signs of the creativity He has placed in you, and desires for you to enjoy.
Did you love numbers, excited to put equations down on paper? Did history enthrall you as you imagined being a spy in the harbor? Listen to these desires. They are good. They are for you. He is for you.
BE WHO YOU ARE
In The Screwtape Letters, Screwtape (the senior devil) warns Wormwood (the junior devil) that the way to get humans away from the Enemy (Christ) is to detach man from himself. Why? Because their Creator values their distinctiveness.
Our God loves us to be who we are, not the image we want to portray to others. His goal is for us to reflect Him instead of reflecting those around us. He wants us to simply be ourselves because as the apostle Paul reminds us,
“We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us.” (Romans 12:6)
Lewis describes this as a coming home, a recovery of our true selves. We feel like we are where we were always meant to be. We are who we were created to be.
This is what He wants for us. To come home. To Him. To Who He created us to be.
How do we do this? By immersing ourselves in true pleasure.
POSITIVE PLEASURES
Here’s the thing. There is negative pleasure and there is positive pleasure. There are pleasures that we partake of that feed our evil desires like lust, greed, and pride.
But real pleasures, according to Lewis, make us feel like we are where we were always meant to be.
We read the book we want to read rather than the one the “influencer” recommends, which we know really doesn’t interest us.
We take a walk for the sake of the walk alone rather than reaching for that number on the scale.
We befriend the woman who intrigues us but others look at skeptically from afar.
We pick up the needlepoint for the joy of the process not to make a sale on Etsy.
We do something because we honestly like to do it.
In The Screwtape Letters, Screwtape chastises Wormwood for letting the man slip through his fingers. And how do the devils lose the man to God? Lewis writes,
“The man who truly and disinterestedly enjoys any one thing in the world, for its own sake, (emphasis mine), and without caring two-pence what other people say about it, is by that very fact forearmed against some of our subtlest forms of attack. You should always try to make the patient abandon the people or food or books he really likes in favor of the ‘best’ people, the ‘right’ food, the ‘important’ books.”
How often do we give up what we really like in order to please others, preserve our reputation, promote our self?
I have found that when I do things that I truly love: walking through the woods, eating a bowl of ice-cream, taking a hot bath, it is life-giving.
The reverse is also true. When I spend too much time in the city, read something I don’t really enjoy just for the sake of reading it, the life drains out of me.
When you partake of real pleasure, you’ll discover a coming home. You’ll notice you are more wholly His. You will see a recovery of your truest self.
You were made to be His alone. And when you draw near to Him, He restores all your personality in it’s purest form.
You have things to offer this world that only you can give. Don’t substitute the conventions of this world for your true likes. Your desires, tastes, joys point to a creature who has a unique song to sing.
So go ahead, read the books you like.