John Ortberg begins Chapter 8 (“As You Wish”) of God is Closer Than You Think with this quote from C.S. Lewis (A Slip of the Tongue): “What matters, what Heaven desires and Hell fears, is precisely that farther step, out of our depth, out of our own control.”
Borrowing an oft-repeated line from the movie The Princess Bride, Pastor Ortberg state that this one line, if prayed continually and with conviction, speaks to the heart of our relationship with God: “As you wish.” Centuries earlier, Brother Lawrence expressed that prayer this way:
“Let us often remember, dear friend, that our sole occupation in life is to please God.”
When our spiritual equilibrium is disoriented by adversity, such thoughts are not likely to be the first ones that come to mind. Yet we need to seriously consider what C.S. Lewis wrote in The Great Divorce, that there comes a time in our lives where we’ll adopt one of two postures before God- joyful surrender or defiant separation. In reality, Pastor Ortberg notes, to some degree our hearts always are assuming one of those two postures. It’s when we feel ourselves drifting away from God that we need to fervently pray “As You wish.”
