An ordered life
From time to time, every man must pause for a moment of introspection. Is the life he’s living purposeful?
Socrates stated that “The unexamined life is not worth living.” One tends to agree, but with the understanding that an unexamined life is unworthy not because it is unexamined but because, by being unexamined, its sins go without repentance. C. S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity,
When a man is getting better he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still left in him. When a man is getting worse he understands his own badness less and less. A moderately bad man knows he is not very good: a thoroughly bad man thinks he is all right.
The world in which we now exist sets great store in entertainment and fleeting moments of ecstasy. The Christian must set great store in that which pleases our Lord. Only in doing so may he enjoy the created world, his relationships with others, and the pleasures of earthly life. To have a life unordered is to never truly know pleasure. The malcontent shall never have satisfaction until he gives up control to God.
Introspection is often accompanied by uncertainty or pain. On rarer occasions, it may come with a chance and sidewise glimpse of the ordered life exposed in someone else. It is only with humility that we may sincerely seek to “heartily rejoice in the strength of our salvation”. And such humility comes with the examination of self in light of the majesty of God.
