02 - Some wise words

I have just finished reading Augstine's Confessions, and I thought I would do a series of posts expounding some extracts from the book which proved beneficial to myself in particuar. Reading this book was admittedly a challenge as at times it was quite lofty and philosophical, but it proved great sustenance for my soul and ultimately very worthwhile. Here goes...

'Man is one of your creatures, Lord, and his instinct is to praise you. He bears about the mark of death, the sign of his own sin, to remind him that you thwart the proud. But still, since he is part of your creation, he wishes to praise you. The thought of you stirs him so deeply that he cannot be content unless he praises you, because you made us for yourself and our hearts find no peace until they rest in you.'

The french philosopher Pascal said within everyman there is God shaped hole which causes each man to search in the deep for something to fill it. Some people don't even realise what shape the hole is and fill it with all the wrong types of things...people will choose the pursuit of fame or fortune, others choose sexual or religious experience and some people choose all of them! These people are searching for contentment and satisfaction which is ultimately outside of God, but as Augustine comments 'he cannot be content unless he praises you.'

Augstine reasons that as God created all things, and that all things come from him, man can find no rest for soul unless he comes back 'under' the one who created him. Thus for man to be truly content he must pursue the good things which come from God, as ultimately there are no good things which exist outside of him. This is the call of every Christian to find delight and contentment in God despite whether he is living life on a mountain top or walking through the deepest valley.

This call begins with the realisation that you actually need God...Augustine says that man bears the mark of death, the sign of his own sin so tha he will eventually turn to God. Indeed the soul is truly lost if he admits that he has no need for God. Ask yourseld do you truly need God? Do you realise this need?