Hey, I found the quote I was looking for that I posted a while back. I'm surprised to find that it's C.S. Lewis. You'd think I'd remember that.
"Imagine a set of people all living in the same building. Half of them think it is a hotel, the other half think it is a prison. Those who think it a hotel might regard it as quite intolerable, and those who thought it was a prison might decide that it was really surprisingly comfortable. So that what seems the ugly doctrine is one that comforts and strengthens you in the end. The people who try to hold an optimistic view of this world would become pessimists; the people who hold a pretty stern view of it become optimistic." -- C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock
I found it the chapter 5 heading of "Where Is God When It Hurts?" by Philip Yancey.
I love this quote b/c it reminds me of when i first became a Christian and learned there was a God and that I was absolutely lost in my sin. I remember being filled with an indescribable, joy that seemed unjustifiable -- why be so happy to learn that you are doomed? -- except when i considered that it meant that this world was not it, not the be-all and end-all, that the existence of a God in the universe who disapproved of this world meant that He had something much better in mind. There's more to life than the meaningless petty existence I saw ahead of me and the evil suffering world I saw around me. Yay!!!!!!
