The Truth About Ourselves

Every man, not very holy or very arrogant, has to "live up to" the outward appearance of other men: he knows there is that within him which falls far below even his most careless public behaviour, even his loosest talk. In an instant of time -- while your friend hesitates for a word -- what things pass through your mind? We have never told the whole truth. We may confess ugly FACTS -- the meanest cowardice or the shabbiest and most prosaic impurity -- but the TONE is false. The very act of confessing -- and infinitesimally hypocritical glance -- a dash of humour -- all this contrives to dissociate the facts from your very self. No one could guess how familiar and, in a sense, congenial to your soul these things were, how much of a piece with all the rest: down there, in the dreaming inner warmth, they struck no such discordant note, were not nearly so odd and detachable from the rest of you, as they seem when they are turned into words. We imply, and often believe, that habitual vices are exceptional single acts, and make the opposite mistake about our virtues -- like the bad tennis player who calls his normal form his "bad days" and mistakes his rare successes for his normal. I do not think it is our fault that we cannot tell the real truth about ourselves; the persistent, life-long inner murmur of spite, jealousy, prurience, greed and self-complacence, simply will not go into words. But the important thing is that we should not mistake our inevitably limited utterances for a full account of the worst that is inside.

A very interesting note.

I have no idea how many people actually read this when I post regularly, but for those who DO, I haven't posted in a while and I'd like to start again.

Sometimes though there is so much to say, but when I sit down and actually try to articulate the thoughts into words, the point gets completely lost and usually I end up deleting it because it starts to read like a bad joke ha ha.

I'll start posting my daily CS Lewis devotional again...at least those who read it will get a good thought for the day as well.

A Good Time Was Had by All

By the goodness of God we mean nowadays almost exclusively His lovingness; and in this we may be right. And by Love, in this context, most of us mean kindness--the desire to see others than the self happy; not happy in this way or in that, but just happy. What would really satisfy us would be a God who said of anything we happened to like doing, "what does it matter so long as they are contented?" We want, in fact, not so much a Father in Heaven as a grandfather in heaven--a senile benevolence who, as they say, "liked to see young people enjoying themselves", and whose plan for the universe was simply that it might be truly said at the end of each day, "a good time was had by all". Not many people, I admit, would formulate a theology in precisely those terms: but a conception not very different lurks at the back of many minds. I do not claim to be an exception: I should very much like to live in a universe which was governed on such lines. But since it is abundantly clear that I don't, and since I have reason to believe, nevertheless, that God is love, I conclude that my conception of love needs correction.

CS Lewis

A favorite so far.

We have two bits of evidence about the Somebody. One is the universe He has made. If we used that as our only clue, then I think we should have to conclude that He was a great artist (for the universe is a very beautiful place), but also that He is quite merciless and no friend to man (for the universe is a very dangerous and terrifying place). The other bit of evidence is that moral law, the Holy Spirit, which He has put into our minds. And this is a better bit of evidence than the other, because it is inside information. You find out more about God from the Holy Spirit than from the universe in general just as you find out more about a man by listening to his conversation than by looking at a house he has built.

CS Lewis

I am a bit irked at the mention of God being merciless and no friend to man. This, I believe, is simply not true. While He is a great and terrifying God at times, His mercy is new every morning and it not just our fear of Him that He desires, but also our relationship with Him...our friendship. I do, however, agree that the Holy Spirit is the living Word with which we are connected most closely to the Father. Some people use the Bible as their primary source of learning and doctrine, and call it the Word. But the Word came alive as Jesus Christ and then came into our hearts as the Holy Spirit and we are meant to live our faith in Him with the Law of the Spirit written on our hearts. So much closer, more alive, and more real a connection between the Father and His children!

Something Beyond

I think all Christians would agree with me if I said that though Christianity seems at the first to be all about morality, all about duties and rules and guilt and virtue, yet it leads you on, out of all that, into something beyond. One has a glimpse of a country where they do not talk of those things, except perhaps as a joke. Every one there is filled full with what we should call goodness as a mirror is filled with light. But they do not call it goodness. They do not call it anything. They are not thinking of it. They are too busy looking at the source from which it comes. But this is near the stage where the road passes over the rim of our world. No one's eyes can see very far beyond that: lots of people's eyes can see further than mine.

CS Lewis

Damned Nonesense

If you do not take the distinction between good and bad very seriously, then it is easy to say that anything you find in this world is a part of God. But, of course, if you think some things really bad, and God really good, then you cannot talk like that. You must believe that God is separate from the world and that some of the things we see in it are contrary to His will. Confronted with a cancer or a slum the Pantheist can say, 'If you could only see it from the divine point of view, you would realize that this is also God.' The Christian replies, "Don't talk damned nonsense.' For Christianity is a fighting religion. It thinks God made the world--that space and time, heat and cold, and all the colours and tastes, and animals and vegetables, are things that Gd 'made up out of His head' as a man makes up a story. But it also thinks that a great many things have gone wrong with the world that God made and that God insists, and insists very loudly, on our putting them right again.

CS Lewis

Interesting!!

A Pleasan Theology

One reason why many people find Creative Evolution so attractive is that it gives one much of the emotional comfort of believing in God and none of the less pleasant consequences. When you are feeling fit and the sun is shining and you do not want to believe that the whole universe is a mere mechanical dance of atoms, it is nice to be able to think of this great mysterious Force rolling on through the centuries and carrying you on its crest. If, on the other hand, you want to do something rather shabby, the Life-Force, being only a blind force, with no morals and no mind, will never interfere with you like that troublesome God we learned about when we were children. The Life-Force is a sort of tame God. You can switch it on when you want, but it will not bother you. All the thrills of religion and none of the cost. Is the Life-Force the greatest achievement of wishful thinking the world has yet seen?

CS Lewis