Are My Blades Sharp?

“Christians have often disputed as to whether what leads the Christian home is good actions, or Faith in Christ. I have no right really to speak on such a difficult question, but it does seem to me like asking which blade in a pair of scissors is most necessary.” 

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

As any serious sewer or crafter knows, those blades – both of them – need to be razor sharp in order to be an effective pair of scissors. The tiniest nick in just one blade can really make a mess of a project. To that end, I treat my sewing scissors with care. I store them in a protective case and keep from using them on blade-destructing projects. So that when I need to use my scissors they are ready and able to do the job they’re called to do – and they can do it effectively.

I wonder if my Christian blades are just as ready to do the job they are called to do? Or do I carelessly toss them into my “junk” drawer where they are repeatedly dulled and nicked by all sorts of blade-destructing encounters - and then wonder why they aren’t as useful as they should be.

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There are no little decisions!

From Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis:

“Good and evil both increase at compound interest.  That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance.  The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. 

“An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible.”

I love how Lewis puts things.   He leaves no doubt of the importance of our each and every decision – no matter how small it may seem to us. 

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Charitable Giving - According to C.S. Lewis

I pride myself on being a pretty good money manager.  I watch my pennies and try to make the most of my dollars.  But I’ve noticed something lately (helped out by the writings of C.S. Lewis).  When it comes to spending on me and my personal life style I do cut myself an awful lot of slack.  When debating whether or not to purchase something – I don’t spend hours on end weighing the pros and cons of that purchase; I pretty much make a quick analysis of the situation and then either buy or not buy – with “buy” being the choice as often as “not buy”. 

But when it comes to charitable giving, the story is a bit different.  Oh, I think I’m generous; I make it a point to set aside a monthly amount for church and another monthly amount for the various causes and collections that present themselves. But that’s pretty much where my analysis ends.  In my reading Mere Christianity, however, I found I’m really not even close to reaching a charitable life style. 

Lewis writes in answer to the question of how much should a person give:

“I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare.   In other words, if our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusements, etc. is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little.  If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small.  There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot do because our charitable expenditure excludes them.”

Talk about some food for thought!  I think Lewis has presented a banquet here - for both thought and some serious prayer!

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Prudence - A Word for Today

In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis writes of four Cardinal (pivotal) virtues: Prudence, Temperance, Justice and Fortitude.  This morning I read his thoughts on Prudence. (According to the old writers, there are seven virtues:  four Cardinal and three Theological)

Lewis defines prudence this way:  “Prudence means practical common sense, taking the trouble to think out what you are doing and what is likely to come of it.”  He explains that this means while we are to be teachable in a child like way, we are also to be as intelligent as possible.  “[God] wants a child’s heart but a grown-up’s head.” 

Modern Christian inspirational writers instruct us to live intentionally, but doesn’t this fall short of living prudently?  Intentionally simply means being deliberate while prudently goes a step beyond to suggest a use of good judgment and common sense.  I can be intentional in my gossip but I certainly would not be prudent in doing so.

 I like that word – prudence.  I think I’ll try to reintroduce that to my vocabulary - and to my decision making. I think that would be a very prudent thing to do!

pru·dent  (prood'nt)

adj.

1. Wise in handling practical matters; exercising good judgment or common sense.

2. Careful in regard to one's own interests; provident.

3. Careful about one's conduct; circumspect.

---

pru' dent·ly adv.

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A Last Letter

From a letter to a child about Narnia. This was written in October 1963 – only weeks before his death.

“Many thanks for your kind letter, and it was very good of you to write and tell me that you like my books; and what a very good letter you write for your age!

“If you continue to love Jesus, nothing much can go wrong with you, and I hope you may always do so. I’m so thankful that you realized the ‘hidden story’ in the Narnian books. It is odd, children nearly always do, grown ups hardly ever.

“I’m afraid the Narnian series has come to an end, and am sorry to tell you that you can expect no more.

"God bless you."

Yours, Jack

C.S. Lewis

Yours, Jack was a wonderful book and as I said earlier, I highly recommend it. It has whetted my appetite for more of his writings. So I am now off to Narnia to search for the “hidden story”! I can’t wait to see what adventures and secrets I encounter.

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On Humility - C.S. Lewis

"May God's grace give you the necessary humility.  Try not to think - much less, speak - of their sins. One's own are a much more profitable theme!  And if, on consideration, one can find no faults on one's own side, then cry for mercy: for this must be a most dangerous delusion."

Yours, Jack

C.S. Lewis

I love how he puts things!  I believe I'll pour another cup of coffee and ponder my delusions.

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A Word to Remember about Forgetting - C.S. Lewis

“About forgetting things, Dr. Johnson said, ‘If, on leaving the company, a young man cannot remember where he has left his hat, it is nothing.  But when an old man forgets, everyone says, Ah, his memory is going.’  So with ourselves.  We have always been forgetting things; but now, when we do so, we attribute it to our age.  Why, it was years ago that, on finishing my work before lunch, I stopped myself only just in time from putting my cigarette-end into my spectacle case and throwing my spectacles into the fire!”

Yours, Jack

C.S. Lewis

 

I have copied this thought for future reference. It makes me feel so much better about my forgetting things.  I’m only doing what comes naturally; nothing more. (...ok, where was I?)

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C.S. Lewis on Lilies and Wrinkles

30 October 1958

"I suppose living from day to day ('take no thought for the morrow') is precisely what we have to learn - though the Old Adam in me sometimes murmurs that if God wanted me to live like the lilies of the field, I wonder He didn't give me the same lack of nerves and imagination as they enjoy!  Or is that just the point, the precise purpose of this Divine paradox and audacity called Man - to do with a mind what other organisms do without it?

"As for wrinkles - pshaw! Why shouldn't we have wrinkles? Honorable insignia of long service in this warefare.  All well with us, in haste, with love.

Yours, Jack

C.S. Lewis

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Yours, Jack on Sensitivity and Worry

I am nearing the end of the C.S. Lewis book of letters, Yours, Jack. What an interesting read it has been. While I have been well aware of Lewis and many of his books, I had never read one and really knew nothing of the man himself. Reading Yours, Jack changed that, offering a glimpse of a delightful, humble, philosophical, and down to earth fellow. His guidance has been invaluable to me!

From this mornings readings:

“When I have been really wicked and angry, and meant to be nasty, the other party never cared or even didn’t notice. On the other hand, when I have found out afterwards that I had deeply hurt someone, it had nearly always been quite unconscious on my part. (I loathe ‘sensitive” people who are ‘easily hurt’ by the way, don’t you? They are a social pest. Vanity is usually the real trouble)…”
[Good food for personal thought!]

“But it is seldom the present and the actual that is intolerable. Remember, one is given strength to bear what happens to one, but not the 100 and 1 different things that might happen.” [So easy to understand; so hard to live.]

Reading a few letters each day makes for a nice devotional.  I highly recommend this book!

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"Delighting the heart, better than gold, sweeter than honey"

As I begin to read The Book of Abraham by Marek Halter, I am struck by the beauty of the Jewish tradition. Their love of and devotion to God shows through in everything they do, from greeting strangers on the street to family conversations. There is no compartmentalizing God in their lives; God is their life.

So it was especially interesting to come upon this thought by C.S. Lewis written in a letter dated 1956. “…the characteristically Jewish feeling that the Law is not only obligatory but beautiful, ravishing: delighting the heart, better than gold, sweeter than honey.”

Oh that my Christian faith should feel the same; delighting the heart, better than gold, sweeter than honey.

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Seeing our pattern emerge

"More generally, I feel the whole of one's youth to be immensely important and even of immense length.  The gradual reading of one's own life, seeing the pattern emerge, is a great illumination of our age.  And partly, I hope, getting freed from the past as past by apprehending it as structure."

C.S. Lewis, Yours, Jack

I love this idea that our past is not something to be overcome or put behind us.   Rather, it is the support and strength of who we are today - and who we will be tomorrow - as we see our "pattern emerge".

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Nothing has changed!

December 19, 1955 - a half a century ago - C.S. Lewis wrote:

“I seem to have been writing Christmas letters most of this day! I’m afraid I hate the weeks just before Christmas, and so much of the (very commercialised and vulgarised) fuss has nothing to do with the Nativity at all.  I wish we didn’t live in a world where buying and selling things (especially selling) seems to have become almost more important than either producing or using them.”  Yours, Jack

Maybe one thing has changed.  It isn’t the weeks before Christmas; it is now the months before Christmas!  Also, I am taken with his opinion regarding the lack of regard for “producing or using” of things – which seems even more spot-on in our culture today.  Sadly, we seem to be best at simply acquiring things!

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Dogs, Cats and Pharisees

“We were talking about dogs and cats the other day and decided that both have consciences but the dog, being an honest, humble person, always has a bad one, but the cat is a Pharisee and always has a good one. When he sits and stares you out of countenance he is thanking God that he is not as these dogs, or these humans, or even as these other cats!”

C.S. Lewis, Yours, Jack

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C.S. Lewis the Man

Snippets of Lewis from Yours, Jack:

“I don’t think evil, in the strict sense, can create. It can spoil something that Another has created. Satan may have corrupted other creatures as well as us. Part of the corruption in us might be the unreasoning horror and disgust we feel at some creatures quite apart from any harm they can do us. (I can’t abide a spider myself.)”

“No, my rheumatism is not really bad. It only produces extreme footsoreness in the left foot, so that after 50 yards, though the right one is fresh as a daisy the left keeps on whimpering ‘Stop! Stop! We’ve been 25 miles already.’”

“All joy (as distinct from mere pleasure, still more amusement) emphasizes our pilgrim status: always reminds, beckons, awakes desire. Our best havings are wantings.”

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Be His!

“You ask ‘for what’ God wants you. Isn’t the primary answer that He wants you. We’re not told that the lost sheep was sought out for anything except itself. Of course, He may have a special job for you: and the certain job is that of becoming more and more His.”

C.S. Lewis, Yours, Jack

An entire industry and culture has developed around the question of what is our purpose in life; for what reason did God create us. We agonize over and search for some grand and worthy plan. Yet, as Lewis wrote in 1954, the answer is as simple as this: We were put here to be His. That’s all! Be His!

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He Always Carries us Out! Always!

 "I am also most moved at hearing how you were supported through the period of anxiety. For one is sometimes tempted to think that if He wanted us to be as un-anxious as the lilies of the field He really might have given us a constitution more like theirs! But then when the need comes He carries out in us His otherwise impossible instructions."

C.S. Lewis, Yours, Jack

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The Beauty is in the Banister.

On “religious Practices” Lewis wrote in a letter dated June 29, 1953:

“I wouldn’t quite say that ‘religious Practices help the search for truth’ for that might imply that they have no further use when the Truth has been found. I think about the practices what a wise old priest said to me about a ‘rule of life’ in general – ‘It is not a stair but a bannister’, i.e., it is, not the thing you ascend by but it is a protective against falling off and a help-up. I think thus we ascend. The stair is God’s grace. One’s climb from step to step is obedience. Many different kinds of bannisters exist, all legitimate. It is possible to get up without any banister, if need be: but no one would willingly build a staircase without them because it would be less safe, more laborious, and a little lacking in beauty.

C.S. Lewis, Yours, Jack

“…and a little lacking in beauty.” Absolutely!

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Liturgy and Prayer

Yours, Jack has been such a wonderful look into the life and faith of C.S. Lewis. I highly recommend this book! This morning I found this perspective of his interesting. He is comparing fixed forms of worship (liturgy and prayers) with extemporaneous worship. He writes in a letter dated April 1, 1952:

"The advantage of a fixed form of service is that we know what is coming. Extempore public prayer has this difficulty: we don’t know whether we can mentally join in it until we’ve heard it – it might be phoney or heretical. We are therefore called upon to carry on a critical and a devotional activity at the same moment: two things hardly compatible. In a fixed form we ought to have ‘gone through the motions’ before in our private prayers: the rigid form really sets our devotions free.

“I also find the more rigid it is, the easier it is to keep one’s thoughts from straying. Also it prevents any service getting too completely eaten up by whatever happens to be the preoccupation of the moment (a war, an election, or what not). The permanent shape of Christianity shows through. I don’t see how the extempore method can help becoming provincial and I think it has a great tendency to direct attention to the minister rather than to God.”

C.S. Lewis ~ Yours, Jack

I love the thought that “the rigid form really sets our devotions free”. That’s why liturgy is so moving. We know it well; we know what’s coming and we can enter it from the very first note or word. Even our simple table prayer – the one we’ve prayed for years and years – can be very devotional because it takes us immediately into a posture of thanksgiving.

For me this means no more struggling with impromptu public prayer. There are too many beautifully written prayers available; prayers that express exactly what I believe and that will allow me to worship unencumbered.

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He Speaks to Me Everywhere!

“I don’t doubt that the Holy Spirit guides your decisions from within when you make them with the intention of pleasing God. The error would be to think that He speaks only within, whereas, in reality, He speaks also through Scripture, the Church, Christian friends, books et cetera.” C.S. Lewis

This reminds me of the words from This Is My Father’s World.

This is my Father's world:
he shines in all that's fair;
in the rustling grass I hear him pass;
he speaks to me everywhere.

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Don't Bother About Your Feelings

"Don't bother much about your feelings.  When they are humble, loving, brave, give thanks for them: when they are conceited, selfish, cowardly, ask to have them altered.  In neither case are they you, but only a thing that happens to you." 

C.S. Lewis, Yours, Jack

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