Metaphorical pipe smoking

My White Stone housemate and I share a lift into work. In fact, we work in the same office - literally, 5 feet away from each other (I see more of him than my wife...)

Anyway, the point I'm getting to is that this morning we both felt a bit groggy and 'morninged-out'. But after a little while, he brought up a theological point about the nature of the Trinity (as you do). In a moment, we were launched into a deep and fairly complex chewing over of God which went on for the rest of the journey (about 20 minutes). We covered (not exhaustively, needless to say) the Trinity, Judaism, Hinduism, icons, Eastern Orthodoxy, the incarnation and finally wound back to the Trinity again. Then we arrived at work.

Why do I mention this? Just that both of us had been feeling a bit demotivated and tired and then came alive. And it wasn't because we put on some upbeat music or told each other jokes. We didn't even try to 'get spiritual'. We engaged our brains - on God, as it happened.

It reminds me of something C S Lewis once wrote:

"I believe that many who find that 'nothing happens' when they sit down, or kneel down, to a book of a devotion, would find that the heart sings unbidden while they are working their way through a tough bit of theology with a pipe in their teeth and a pencil in their hand." - C. S. Lewis

Now I've never been into pipe smoking myself, but I know what Lewis means: so I offer it as today's reflection. And I intend to try to fill some of those moments that come up when I sag in motivation with a little more tough thinking.

Now, where did I leave my copy of Plato?...