I have often had to be reminded of my finiteness. The trouble is that there is too much good stuff to do or try, and time seems to be flying by. Many times I have found myself feeling frustrated that I do not have the time (or the energy) to do all that I would like to do, and feel the passage of time strongly.
However, I recently had a great encouragement from this frustration. Whilst on holiday in the summer, I listened to Vaughan Robert's series on Ecclesiastes (That's Life! from 2005/06, available from the St. Ebbe's Website).
In his third sermon, on Ecclesiastes 3, he referenced some of CS Lewis' writing*, in which he referenced some of our odd terms for the passage of time; e.g. "doesn't time fly?" - which is a bit like a fish saying "isn't it wet?". Indeed, all human desires have some form of fulfillment - we have hunger, but there is food; we get thirsty, and there is water; we are tired, and there is sleep. However, we have a desire for more time, and yet time seems to be passing away from us. Does this not suggest that we were originally made to enjoy eternity? Perhaps this is why the teacher writes that "He has set eternity in the hearts of men" (3v11).
So, rather than feeling frustrated that there is so little time to do all that I might like... I can rejoice that I can look forward to all eternity to enjoy our heavenly Father's goodness and good gifts. Even better, we shall enjoy them as he intended us to, without the corruption of our fallen world.
* Laura has reminded me that this is from a letter from Lewis to Sheldon Vanauken, which is included in A Severe Mercy.
Wednesday, 7 September 2011
Chocoholics Anonymous
Continuing the latest ice cream theme, we had another go this weekend.
We made white chocolate ice cream, with a dark chocolate sauce. It went beautifully with everyone's favourite brownies:
The white chocolate ice cream was pretty good (we added white rum, but if I were doing it again, I would certainly go for dark rum for a sweeter and richer flavour).
However, what really made it was the dark chocolate sauce, which was superlative. In fact, there was one ingredient we added which I would never have thought of, but turned out to be pure genius. (Tip: while there was a little Cointreau in the sauce, the magic ingredient was not alcoholic.)
Any guesses as to what it might be?
We made white chocolate ice cream, with a dark chocolate sauce. It went beautifully with everyone's favourite brownies:
The white chocolate ice cream was pretty good (we added white rum, but if I were doing it again, I would certainly go for dark rum for a sweeter and richer flavour).
However, what really made it was the dark chocolate sauce, which was superlative. In fact, there was one ingredient we added which I would never have thought of, but turned out to be pure genius. (Tip: while there was a little Cointreau in the sauce, the magic ingredient was not alcoholic.)
Any guesses as to what it might be?
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