The Deep Meaning of Happiness

“If God is the proper reference point for all aspects and things in life, then God gives them their true meaning and puts them in the proper order in our lives. This grand union of God, ourselves, and the whole cosmos in a sacred synthesis of rightly ordered love constitutes the deep meaning of happiness.”

~ David Naugle, Reordered Love, Reordered Lives (Grand Rapids, Mi.; Eerdmans, 2008), 23.

A Blind and Eager Pursuit

“There is not any thing in this world, perhaps, that is more talked of, and less understood, than the business of a happy life. It is every person’s wish and design; and yet not one in a thousand . . . knows wherein that happiness consists. We live, however, in a blind and eager pursuit of it; and the more haste we make in a wrong way, the further we are from our journey’s end.”

~ Seneca (3 BC – 65 AD), quoted by David Naugle in Reordered Love, Reordered Lives (Grand Rapids, Mi.: Eermands, 2008), 9.

A Deeper Love

“There is a love deeper than theirs who seek only the happiness of their beloved. Would a father see his daughter happy as a whore? Would a woman see her lover happy as a coward?”

~ C. S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces, 147

Divorce & Love

“The proper question, perhaps, is not why we have so much divorce, but why we are so unforgiving. The answer, perhaps, is that, though we still recognize the feeling of love, we have forgotten how to practice love when we don’t feel it.”

~ Wendell Berry, Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community (New York, NY: Pantheon Books, 1992), 140.

We Belong to God

“We belong, to the whole extent of our being, only to God, whom we must learn to love even more than we love father or mother. What makes us true individuals therefore is that God calls us by name. Our individuality is not a personal achievement or power, and — most striking of all — it is established only in community with God. We are most ourselves not when we seek to direct or control our destiny but when we recognize and admit that our life is grounded in and sustained by God.”

~ Gilbert Meilander, Bioethics: A Primer for Christians (Grand Rapids, Mi.; Eerdmans, 1996), 2.

On Virtue

“Virtue may be defined as an activity of the whole person in conformity with love of God and love of neighbor.”

~ Benjamin W. Farley, In Praise of Virtue (Grand Rapids, Mi.: Eerdmans, 1995), 160.

The Worth & Excellency of a Soul

“The worth and excellency of a soul is to be measured by the object of its love.”

~ Henry Scougal, The Life of God in the Soul of Man (Harrisburg, Va.: Sprinkle Publications, 1986), 62.

Which Kind of Love Builds What Kind of City?

“We see then that the two cities were created by two kinds of love: the earthly city was created by self-love reaching the point of contempt for God, the Heavenly City by the love of God carried as far as contempt of self. In fact, the earthly city glories in itself, the Heavenly City glories in the Lord. The former looks for glory from men, the latter finds its highest glory in God. . . . In the former, the lust for domination lords it over princes as over the nations it subjugates; in the other both those put in authority and those subject to them serve one another in love, the rulers by their counsel, the subjects by obedience. The one city loves its own strength shown in its powerful leaders; the other says to it God: ‘I will love you, my Lord, my strength.’

Consequently, in the earthly city its wise men who live by men’s standards have pursued the goods of the body or of their own mind, or of both. . . . In the Heavenly City . . . man’s only wisdom is the devotion which rightly worships the true God. . . .”

~ Augustine, The City of God, quoted by David Naugle in Reordered Love, Reordered Lives (Grand Rapids, Mi.: Eerdmans, 2008), 52-53.

The Deep Meaning of Happiness

For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen (Romans 11:36).

“If God is the proper reference point for all aspects and things in life, then God gives them their true meaning and puts them in the proper order in our lives. This grand union of God, ourselves, and the whole cosmos in a sacred synthesis of rightly ordered love constitutes the deep meaning of happiness.”

~ David K. Naugle, Reordered Love, Reordered Lives (Grand Rapids, Mi.: Eerdmans, 2008), 23.

Religious vs Christian Obedience

“You can run from God either by breaking his rules or by keeping them. The difference between the religious person and the true Christian is that the religious person obeys God to get control over God, and to get things from God, but the Christian obeys just to get God. Religious persons obey to get leverage over God, to control him, to put him in a position where they think he owes them. Therefore, despite their moral and religious fastidiousness, they are actually attempting to be their own saviors. Christians, who know they are only saved by grace and can never control God, obey him out of a desire to love and please and draw closer to the one who saved them.”

~ Timothy Keller, Paul’s Letter to the Galatians: Living in Line with the Truth of the Gospel (Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2003), 38.