all of you readers of the quotes of the day may notice that nothing's been consistent for a few days. i apologize on behalf of American Electric Power and Time Warner, Inc.--both companies have been unable to provide consistent electricity or internet service for several days. our daily dose of severe weather since the 4th has caused many things, including my rather large backyard pear tree, to break. but in this brief reprieve from the lightning and hail, and while i seem to have both computer power and internet service, i will offer this quote of the day. Some comments: C. S. Lewis is my 2nd favorite author behind J. R. R. Tolkien...both of which I've loved since a very young age--not just since the over-marketed cash-cow movies and republished books have cascaded upon the public. But I've never read the collection of addresses and short papers entitled _The Weight of Glory_ before a certain member of this blog (who shall remain nameless) left two boxes of books in my living room with no certain date for retrieval. So I thought I'd make the best of it and actually begin reading some of those books. The Weight of Glory was among them and viola! here you have a quote of the day for Wednesday, July 9th, 2003. "I can imagine someone saying that he dislikes my idea of heaven as a place where we are patted on the back. But proud misunderstanding is behind that dislike. In the end that Face which is the delight or the terror of the universe must be turned upon each of us either with one expression or with the other, either conferring glory inexpressible or inflicting shame that can never be cured or disguised. I read in a periodical the other day that the fundamental thing is how we think of God. But God Himself, it is not! How God thinks of us is not only more important, but infinitely more important. Indeed, how we think of Him is of no importance except insofar as it is related to how He thinks of us. It is written that we shall "stand before" Him, shall appear, shall be inspected. The promise of glory is the promise, almost incredible and only possible by the work of Christ, that some of us, that any of us who really chooses, shall actually survive that examination, shall find approval, shall please God. To please God...to be a real ingredient in the divine happiness...to be loved by God, not merely pitied, but delighted in as an artist delights in this work or a father in a son--it seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain. But so it is." --C. S. Lewis, "The Weight of Glory" from _The Weight of Glory_ (1949, updated 1962). pp.13.