Face to Face

We need not exert ourselves and try to force ourselves to believe, or try to chase doubt out of our hearts.  Both our just as useless.  It begins to dawn on us that we can bring everything to Jesus, no matter how difficult it is, and we need not be frightened away by our doubts or our weak faith, but only tell Jesus how weak our faith is  We have let Jesus into our hearts   And He will fulfill our hearts' desires. -O. Hallsby Give us, O Lord, steadfast hearts that cannot be dragged down by false loves; give us courageous hearts that cannot be warn down by trouble; give us righteous hearts that cannot be sidetracked by unholy or unworthy goals.  Give to us also, our Lord and God, understanding to know you, diligence to look for you, wisdom to recognize you, and a faithfulness that will bring us to see you face to face. - Thomas a Kempis

I saw well why the gods do not speak to us openly, nor let us answer. Till that word can be dug out of us, why should they hear the babble that we think we mean? How can they meet us face to face till we have faces? - C. S. Lewis Till We Have Faces

Till We Have Faces is a book that I highly value.  It is the last fictional book written by Lewis and it is the culmination of his years of study.  It is the retelling of Cupid and Psyche set in a made up country and narrated by Orual, the older sister of Psyche.  She chases knowledge and facts.  Psyche is sacrificed to the gods and Orual hates the gods who "stole" her sister.  She tries to save Psyche from what she believes to be a nightmare.  Psyche is happy but listens to Orual and is punished.  Orual realizes that she has caused Psyche much pain and suffering.  She writes out her complaints to the gods and has a dream in which she is standing before the gods outlining her suffering and the injustices of her life.  But she realizes that all pretension has to be stripped away, any thing she thinks she knows is rubbish.  To face the gods, one must have to be barefaced.

I love this story because of the truths that it presents.  We can chase after knowledge and facts, even theology, but when it comes down to it we have to bear our hearts to God to make ourselves be vulnerable to Him so we can know Him and be honest with ourselves.  When we face God face to face we have to strip away all the masks and veils that we hide behind, other wise we are just standing in the presence of God lying about who we are.

Bonnie Ponce is the Director of Support Raising for Relief and lives in Huntsville, Texas with her husband and betta fish. She has a BA in English from Sam Houston State University. After work she enjoys relaxing with a good book or working on her novel.