I am pretty sure that "Breath Marks" from years of band, are why I have so many freakin commas in my writing...

..like I put a comma in my writing as if I were speaking and need a breath...haha..

WOW! I just found out how to edit this WAAAY easier..and make my txt pretty colors.. woo hoo!



Its not often that I get to post an exam..but I thought this one was pretty good. I had no idea that our final was going to be on the exact thing that Ive been posting about for the last 2 weeks. :D



Yay C.S Lewis!

I know its a pain in the butt....but if you get a couple minutes to read it, there are some really good excerpts from "Mere Christianity" in here.. :D

Leslie Vincent
Professor Pate
Final: Mere Christianity
5/11/09



In C.S. Lewis’ “Mere Christianity,” Lewis expresses his views on Christianity and how it is applicable to our everyday lives, actions, and emotions. Through basic scientific reasoning he explains why Christianity makes logical sense, and how he has reasoned it to be true. Yet a theme that Lewis repeats many times in his book is that of “dying to self” He makes it clear that based on his perception of Christianity, you cannot have a true relationship with God until you “die to self.” Throughout the book he makes claims as to why it is so important, and furthermore why it is so difficult for one to truly achieve.

Since Lewis expresses so often the importance of “dying to self,” what does he explain that it entails? One of the reasons we know that he finds it to be so important is that he concludes his book with a summary of death of self and what that means to a person. He explains that one must “give up himself”, “submit to death”, “and throw it (your own life that is) away blindly.” (Lewis 176-177) “Your life” that he speaks of includes treasures of this world, wants and desires that are held most dear and our own selfish ambitions. We must literally become creatures that live completely for God. It is important that he notes we must do it “blindly,” (Lewis 176) because giving yourself up to God knowingly, and knowing the benefits of it, is purely another selfish ambition. Therefore Lewis tells us that we must negate ourselves entirely in this decision and choose to live for God, in a personal relationship with him.


Now, of course the aforementioned is easier said than done. As we begin to realize what it truly means to no longer care about what we want, feel, or need, we also notice that it gets increasingly hard to want to give all of that up. Lewis, however, addresses this. In other chapters of his book he points out why human nature and “instinct,” make it difficult for this sacrifice to occur. In his chapter “Let’s Pretend” Lewis is making a point about how we are not actually sons of God, and that because we are “a bundle of self-centered fears, hopes, greeds, jealousies, and self conceit all doomed to death(Lewis 151-152)” we are not even acting like the son of God. It is in our nature to be sinners, those set-apart from God, and as such it is difficult to draw ourselves nearer to him.

Another reason is that we have pride. Lewis spends a great deal of his book talking about pride as, “The great sin.” He labels this as such because “it was through pride that the devil became the devil. (Lewis 103)” Lewis sees pride as the one sin that leads to all others. In his view it is through pride that we lust, are greedy, and not to mention because it manifests itself in all these other sins, when played out on its own, it can become a part of the church and ministry and no one ever notices. “This is why a cold, self righteous prig who goes to church regularly may be far nearer to hell than a prostitute. (Lewis 89) How are we supposed to die to ourselves, when our “self” is what we hold most dear? Worst of all we think ourselves to be above needing God when we are prideful. Because of everything that we are “good at” or possess, it is often thought that we don’t need God to be happy in this life, because we have found happiness on our own; it is as Lewis says pride is “the complete anti-god state of mind (Lewis 103)”

Also, some people find it difficult to accept the help of a savior, sometimes simply because we do not believe or trust that he is a true savior. It is difficult for us to accept that someone could have a saving power over us, since our pride tells us that we are all powerful and can save ourselves. When dealing with how “die to self”, it makes sense that if one was going to give himself up, it should be to something or someone that is better than he (even if that is selfish in nature.) Lewis explains how some people negate the value of Christ as a savior because it “must have been so easy for him (55)” and gives an analogy of a person unwilling to accept the help of a savior, by telling a story as if he were drowning.

“If I am drowning in a rapid river, a man who still has one foot on the bank may give me a hand which saves my life. Ought I to shout back (between my gasps) ‘No, it’s not fair! You have an advantage! You’re keeping one foot on the bank’? That advantage – call it ‘unfair’ if you like, is the only reason why he can be of any use to me. To what will you look for help if you will not look to that which is stronger than yourself? (Lewis 56)”

God is stronger than us, we need him, and we cannot get to him in full until we give ourselves up completely. Lewis, fortunately, agrees with this. So why is this ‘dying to self” so important in truly accepting God? Its significance is found in the realization that Lewis makes that “…everything which really needs to be done in our souls can only be done by God (Lewis 155)” In “Mere Christianity” Lewis devotes a whole book called “Christian Behavior” which describes a number of attributes that we are called to have as Christians such as; Social and Sexual Morality, Forgiveness, Charity, Hope and Faith. We are not able to transform ourselves to have these qualities, or become closer to God on our own. Our job is to surrender, and let him take control.


Why give ourselves up though? Once we accept the hand and turn everything over, what is God going to do with us? Well Lewis attempts to explain this throughout his book. At one point he states that because we are not “of God’ but more simply “made by God” we are like statues; we only have biological life in us and no spiritual life. He explains that going from biological life to spiritual life would be like a statue turning in to a real man. And so as he states on page 131 “…that is precisely what Christianity is all about. This world is a great sculptor’s shop. We are all statues and there is a rumor going ‘round the shop that some of us are some day going to come to life.” God wants to breathe spiritual life into us, to allow us to become more like him. Lewis also makes that point that in the bible God calls us ‘gods’ and that if we let him that is exactly what God wants for us.

“He will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a god or goddess, a dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot not imagine, a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly (though of course, on a smaller scale) His own boundless power and delight and goodness. The process will be long and in parts very painful, but that is what we are in for. Nothing less. He meant what he said. (Lewis 163)

And finally, one of the best reasons that Lewis gives us to die to self in order to live for God, is because “He loves us.” Which we know, and is an argument well made throughout our childhoods, and Christian upbringing. But as Lewis says “He loves us. Not for any nice, attractive qualities we think we have, but just because we are the things called selves. For really there is nothing else in us to love… (Lewis 102)”

So this task, this dying to self, as difficult as it may be, in the theology of C.S Lewis is vitally important to receiving God. He makes it clear that it is a difficult task, that there is much to be learned about ones “self” before they can truly surrender. But also that Gods glorious riches await us when we do, through true humility and focus on Christ. As Lewis closes his book he validates his own argument. All that has been said throughout the book about; what it means to be a Christian, becoming new, and developing a whole different view on life as one made by God, all seems to flow into his final paragraph, as if none of the rest of it really mattered in comparison to these few words.

“Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death every day and death of your whole body in the end: submit with every fiber of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in. (Lewis 177)”

(And now....My awesome conclusion paragraph that made my prof smile as she read it..yesss)

***And when charged with that, the struggle of it all seems so small in comparison. The pride and self-conceit that all of us as Christians hold to so tightly in order to maintain our self-achieved “status,” really just goes away. This is what the essence of dying to self is, realizing that call we have received is more important than the instincts we desire to give into, and that any earthly thing is so much less than the treasures that await us when God turns us “statues” into “real men.” ***


I wrote this whole thing in an hour...it was 5 pages...and it only needed to be 3..yay!
If you just read this, than I love you! <3
Thanks ;)