Mud Pies in a Slum

Today is a travel day, so what I have to share is not so much a story as a great quote, "We are half-hearted creatures, fooling around 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." - C.S. Lewis

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C.S. Lewis once wrote: "Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of."

What Is The Name of that Song?

Ever heard a song that you recognized, liked, and wanted to find the name of it? NFL Films played a piece to open its highlight film of the New York Giants’ 1990 season. It was a beautiful, compelling, and inspirational piece of music.

The work lay dormant in my mind until recently, when I heard it on a JOS A BANK commercial. “Wow! I’ve got to find that and download it to my iTunes library,” I thought to myself. And so the search began.

The search is not over. I looked for the music on iTunes. I hunted for it on Amazon. I rummaged around the back channels of YOUTUBE. I even deployed the song identification apps from my iPhone in the effort to find this piece of music.

Why do I go to this trouble? Because that work of music touches something deep within me. Is it an emotion? Yes, but I think it goes deeper than that.

C. S. Lewis wrote that we possess a longing that haunts us. It senses another world that awaits us. This yearning for another place could even be described as nostalgic.

I believe this hunger to transcend our world reflects an innate desire to reconnect with God. We came into the world with a closer relationship with Him. That was lost when we entered into a life of focus on self—otherwise known as a life of sin. We miss what we know we should have. We long to have it back.

Fortunately, because of the work of Christ, someday that relationship can be fully restored. In the meantime, perhaps we can content ourselves with gentle reminders of what we ultimately hope for, as we hunt for the songs that move us.