{"id":5128,"date":"2018-08-23T15:59:42","date_gmt":"2018-08-23T23:59:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/?p=5128"},"modified":"2018-08-23T15:59:42","modified_gmt":"2018-08-23T23:59:42","slug":"the-screwtape-letters-thirteen-through-nineteen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2018\/08\/23\/the-screwtape-letters-thirteen-through-nineteen","title":{"rendered":"The Screwtape Letters: Thirteen Through Nineteen"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Screw\u00adtape Let\u00adters by C.S. Lewis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Blog read\u00aders: Chi Alpha @ Stan\u00adford is engag\u00ading in our annu\u00adal sum\u00admer read\u00ading project. As we read through three books by C. S. Lewis, I\u2019ll post my thoughts here (which will large\u00adly con\u00adsist of excerpts I found insight\u00adful). They are all tagged sum\u00admer-read\u00ading-project-2018<\/a>. The sched\u00adule is online<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Lewis is on such a roll! This week we\u2019re look\u00ading at let\u00adters thir\u00adteen through nine\u00adteen, and insights abound. I fear that if I don\u2019t con\u00adstrain myself I\u2019ll just cut and paste all of the text.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll lim\u00adit myself to two excerpts from Lewis along with some brief com\u00admen\u00adtary on them.<\/p>\n

The great thing is to pre\u00advent his doing any\u00adthing. As long as he does not con\u00advert it into action, it does not mat\u00adter how much he thinks about this new repen\u00adtance. Let the lit\u00adtle brute wal\u00adlow in it. Let him, if he has any bent that way, write a book about it; that is often an excel\u00adlent way of ster\u00adil\u00adiz\u00ading the seeds which the Ene\u00admy plants in a human soul. Let him do any\u00adthing but act. No amount of piety in his imag\u00adi\u00adna\u00adtion and affec\u00adtions will harm us if we can keep it out of his will. As one of the humans has said, active habits are strength\u00adened by rep\u00ade\u00adti\u00adtion but pas\u00adsive ones are weak\u00adened. The more often he feels with\u00adout act\u00ading, the less he will be able ever to act, and, in the long run, the less he will be able to feel. (Let\u00adter 13, page 223)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Wow. I had for\u00adgot\u00adten Lewis said this. This is so good! The author to which Screw\u00adtape is allud\u00ading is Joseph But\u00adler and you can see the source of the quote at Lewisiana<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lewis is dri\u00adving at this: the longer you mean to do some\u00adthing the less like\u00adly you are to do it. So get off your good inten\u00adtions and do some\u00adthing you know you are sup\u00adposed to do. Obe\u00addi\u00adence unlocks insight. The more you do the more you will under\u00adstand and then the more oppor\u00adtu\u00adni\u00adties for obe\u00addi\u00adence you will have. It\u2019s a vir\u00adtu\u00adous cycle.<\/p>\n

You must there\u00adfore con\u00adceal from the patient the true end of Humil\u00adi\u00adty. Let him think of it not as self-for\u00adget\u00adful\u00adness but as a cer\u00adtain kind of opin\u00adion (name\u00adly, a low opin\u00adion) of his own tal\u00adents and char\u00adac\u00adter. Some tal\u00adents, I gath\u00ader, he real\u00adly has. Fix in his mind the idea that humil\u00adi\u00adty con\u00adsists in try\u00ading to believe those tal\u00adents to be less valu\u00adable than he believes them to be. No doubt they are in fact less valu\u00adable than he believes, but that is not the point. The great thing is to make him val\u00adue an opin\u00adion for some qual\u00adi\u00adty oth\u00ader than truth, thus intro\u00adduc\u00ading an ele\u00adment of dis\u00adhon\u00adesty and make-believe into the heart of what oth\u00ader\u00adwise threat\u00adens to become a virtue.\u2026  The Ene\u00admy wants him, in the end, to be so free from any bias in his own favor that he can rejoice in his own tal\u00adents as frankly and grate\u00adful\u00adly as in his neigh\u00adbor\u2019s talents\u2014or in a sun\u00adrise, an ele\u00adphant, or a water\u00adfall. He wants each man, in the long run, to be able to rec\u00adog\u00adnize all crea\u00adtures (even him\u00adself) as glo\u00adri\u00adous and excel\u00adlent things. (Let\u00adter 14, page 225)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This reminds me of Romans 12:3, where Paul teach\u00ades us: \u201cDo not think of your\u00adself more high\u00adly than you ought, but rather think of your\u00adself with sober judg\u00adment, in accor\u00addance with the faith God has dis\u00adtrib\u00aduted to each of you.\u201d<\/p>\n

That verse alone would change Stan\u00adford if it was tak\u00aden seri\u00adous\u00adly. \u201cDo not think of your\u00adself more high\u00adly than you ought.<\/strong>\u201d Instead, Paul says, think of your\u00adself with sober judg\u00adment<\/strong>. In oth\u00ader words, self-aware\u00adness and hon\u00adesty lay the foun\u00adda\u00adtion for humil\u00adi\u00adty. Don\u2019t over\u00ades\u00adti\u00admate your com\u00adpe\u00adtence but also don\u2019t down\u00adplay it. And when you eval\u00adu\u00adate your\u00adself sober\u00adly, do it \u201cin accor\u00addance with the faith God has dis\u00adtrib\u00aduted to each of you<\/strong>.\u201d I take that to mean that instead of sub\u00adjec\u00adtive\u00adly com\u00adpar\u00ading our\u00adselves to oth\u00aders, we should mea\u00adsure our\u00adselves against the objec\u00adtive stan\u00addards of God\u2019s Word and ulti\u00admate\u00adly against the per\u00adson of Jesus. That\u2019s a whole ser\u00admon, though, and that\u2019s not the point of these updates. I just want to remind you that Lewis has some amaz\u00ading insights and encour\u00adage you to fin\u00adish the sum\u00admer read\u00adings strong!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blog read\u00aders: Chi Alpha @ Stan\u00adford is engag\u00ading in our annu\u00adal sum\u00admer read\u00ading project. As we read through three books by C. S. Lewis, I\u2019ll post my thoughts here (which will large\u00adly con\u00adsist of excerpts I found insight\u00adful). They are all tagged sum\u00admer-read\u00ad\u00ading-project-2018. The sched\u00adule is online. Lewis is on such a roll! This week \u2026 Con\u00adtin\u00adue read\u00ading \u201cThe Screw\u00adtape Let\u00adters: Thir\u00adteen Through Nine\u00adteen\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[230,237,229,236],"class_list":["post-5128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-resources-reviews","tag-c-s-lewis","tag-humility","tag-summer-reading-project-2018","tag-the-screwtape-letters"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-1kI","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5128"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5133,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5128\/revisions\/5133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}