Blog Suspended~

If you're reading this blog, thank you. I've decided to suspend this blog for at least this month. I'm writing so much on the novel and trying to keep up two blogs is just too much for me. Right now, I'm planning to write my regular blog as often as I can, and for now I'm going to put a chapter from Meeting God in Quiet Places by F. LaGard Smith on my regular blog Saturday and Sunday.

If you want to see my regular blog, go to http://memosfrommimi.blogspot.com/

Thanks to everyone who has been so supportive. It's meant a lot to me. I pray that you'll let God come into your life as I know you'll be happier if you do.

Blessings...Mimi

Faith ~ 2

Lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.  I Corinthians 1:17

You'll be happy to learn that I'm doing well with my novel writing. I have almost 12,000 words on my way to 50,000. I have the whole month of November to write this book, but with company coming, I have no idea if my writing will end abruptly or continue. Your guess is as good as mine. I was surprised yesterday when I received a box from my sister-in-law, Elaine (Ron's wife), and I opened it up to find two books--one with the first set of lessons and the second set of lessons in another one. Ron has worked with a series of lessons called The Big Picture of the Bible, which is a wonderful overview of God's plan of salvation, and that was also in the box. I've written 80 lessons now, and they were all in the box! It was quite a moment for me. Thanks Ron and Elaine. Ron is still in Mosambique, but will be home on the 9th as far as I know. 

This is the second part of a parable by F. LaGard Smith from Meeting God in Quiet Places: The Cotswold Parables on faith and what it means to have real faith. Many people today have a surface faith, but it takes more than that to get through our lives trusting Christ. However, the reward is great when our faith is strong.

Perhaps we've been fooled by modern televangelists into thinking that if our Christian walk doesn't beam success, then it isn't worthwhile. But if you've read your New Testament, you'll know that the Christian doesn't always have success in this life. Not the kind that other people recognize. It is ironic that when you have a trusting faith, you learn that the meek do inherit the earth, and the kingdom of heaven belongs to the poor in spirit. Turning human thinking on its head, Christ said things like: "The first shall be last, and the last shall be first." What? What is that you're saying? I find that hard to believe, Jesus. AND, Jesus said: "He who is least among you is the greatest." There you go again...that just doesn't make any sense. You have to make sense if you want to be accepted. But again, Jesus said: "Whoever loses his life for my sake shall find it." Well, that takes the cake! Such upside-down thinking isn't going to win many followers!



No, you may not get that Cadillac you've been hoping for, or that dream house you have wished for daily. More seriously, the baby may not live and the loved one may leave you. Your marriage may fail and life may not be ideal for you simply because you're a Christian. Christians have death and taxes just like everyone else. If you're looking for a miracle, you may be disappointed.

Now here's something that LaGard says: "It's from the cross that we learn what a Jumbo-size mistake it is to always expect a miracle. We don't preach a rescued Christ but a crucified Christ. Jesus did not miraculously escape the cross; he endured it! He conquered it through faith, and that's how it can be for us. If we can't escape the pain we are experiencing, at least we have assurance that we can endure it. If we can't understand our suffering, at least we know we can overcome it."

Think about it: The miracle is not in changed circumstances, but in our changed attitude about whatever our circumstances are. The miracle of Calvary was how God turned a seeming defeat into  victory: crucifixion into glorification!

How can we share in the true miracle of the cross? 1) Learn to surrender so that you might be exalted.
2) Learn to humble yourself under the mighty hand of God so that He might lift you up.

Does that appeal to our human instincts? I don't think so. But that is our challenge, isn't it? Because the true miracle of the cross--unlike the spectacular story of Jumbo--is not about feeling good with a lot of warm fuzzies once or twice a year, the true miracle is the undeniable fact of Jesus' presence in our lives when the going gets tough. Remember this: Whatever your cross may be, His weakness becomes your strength! And His triumph becomes your hope! 

I'm so glad that you're reading this lesson about faith. It's important that you see how it works in your life. I hope you have a glorious Sunday!

Blessings...Mimi 

Faith

Lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.   I Corinthians 1:17

Chapter nine of Meeting God in Quiet Places: The Cotswold Parables by F. LaGard Smith is titled "Jumbo the Elephant." The parable in this chapter talks about faith, using the heroism of an elephant named  Jumbo. The story that LaGard tells visitors is both entertaining and somewhat believable...at least people believe it at first. When he has visitors, he takes them for walks in the hills, and it's inevitable that they see a large, grass-covered mound bulging out of the ground. It's at least 15 by 25 across and is fenced in to protect it. Almost everyone wants to know what it is. And the story that LaGard tells is that in the 1930s, Jumbo the elephant came to town with a circus. There was a fire and Jumbo lifted a beam from the Mayor's body during a fire and saved his life. But the effort and excitement were too much for Jumbo and he died. The town council were so appreciative of what Jumbo did that they gave him a proper burial, so his body was carried to the top of the hill in Buckland and put in a grave overlooking Evesham, where the circus had been. The story is always believed, at least for a moment. It seems that people want to believe the story because it's a great story if it's true, and it involves a circus. Who doesn't love a circus?

The question is this: Is there something of Jumbo in the Gospel accounts? Jesus was thrilling crowds with His miracles, whether He was turning water to wine, healing the sick, raising the dead, or walking on water, nothing was too difficult for him. The people loved it and wanted to make Him King. They wanted to believe in this wonder-working man because they loved His show, much like a circus. And nothing has changed today. Christmas and Easter still pull in the crowds.

So the next question is: Why did Paul talk so much about "Christ crucified?" He could have talked about Christ's birth, or His resurrection, or even His ascension. The crucifixion seems so negative. It seemed to defeat everything they had come to believe. Because Jesus's own disciples didn't understand the cross at first. They had been envisioning Jesus as King--a political King--with high positions in the kingdom for themselves. They were looking for the spectacular.  They felt the same disillusionment at the foot of the cross that people do today when the very thing that attracted them to Christianity turns out to be just that...an illusion. The magic is gone and the reality becomes apparent--emptiness and foolishness. The show is over.

So where does that leave us? Here we are, hanging in with Christianity, when we suddenly find ourselves bearing a cross! We too find that we have been betrayed by friends and rejected by those who ought to love us most. We too have times of suffering--from literal pain or from the pain of separation from a loved one. These are moments when we feel helpless and vulnerable to situations around us that we can't control.

And these are also the times when we find ourselves--feeling fearful, alone, and helpless--that we turn to hear what Paul has to say: "The foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength." It's incredible to understand that because of His own crucifixion, Jesus knows exactly how we feel! During these times, He lifts us up--He on His cross, we on ours.

What else does the cross of Jesus do for us? When you hear a problem-free gospel being preached, the cross of Christ sorts out idealism and realism in our walk as Christians. As LaGard says: "The cross points out the difference between how we want to believe the Christian life and how it is in truth. We want wholenss, but we find tht very wholeness is our brokenness. We want strength, but we discover that our strength comes only through our weakness."

Hmmm...we don't really like weakness, do we? But there is more to this picture than I've explained so far, so tune in for more answers tomorrow. I pray that you'll have a wonderful weekend, and that you remember to thank God every day of your life.

Blessings...Mimi

Women: Sexuality & Justice~

Good morning! I hope you've had a good week and are ready for a glorious weekend. I'm in a hurry this morning--going to have lunch with Alice at 11 AM. But I wanted to give you something to chew on. This is from C. S. Lewis's book God in the Dock. I find it appropriate to think about when I consider what's going on in our world today. Please think about it.

Sexuality and Justice

A society in which conjugal infidelity is tolerated must always be in the long run a society adverse to women. Women, whatever a few male songs and satires may say to the contrary, are more naturally monogamous than men; it is a biological necessity. Where promiscuity prevails, they will therefore always be more often the victims than the culprits. Also, domestic happiness is more necessary to them than to us. And the quality by which they most easily hold a man, their beauty, decreases every year after they have come to maturity, but this does not happen to those qualitites of personality--women don't really care twopence about our looks--by which we hold women. Thus in the ruthless war of promiscuity women are at double disadvantage. They play for higher stakes and are also more likely to lose. I have no sympathy with moralists who frown at the increasing crudity of female provocativeness. These signs of desperate competition fill me with pity.

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If this doesn't ring any bells in your head, then you aren't paying attention to what's going on in society. Women need to wake up to the fact that they are in charge of the way this situation goes. I pray that the way women dress and behave to get a man's attention will change. They are giving away their power by living with boyfriend after boyfriend. How can a society survive these attitudes?

Have a great weekend!
Blessings...Mimi

From Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer ~ C. S. Lewis

I'll just tell you that I'm working on the NaNoWriMo Write A Novel Program and am working toward writing a 50,000 word novel. If I can do that, they will publish my novel just for me to have a copy of it for myself, which I would really like. But whether I can do that or not, I can't say at this point. It's very time-consuming to say the least, so I may not put as many blogs on as usual. I hope you'll be patient with me and stay with me as I make this new effort in writing. Meanwhile, I'm giving you some good thoughts from C. S. Lewis.

The Duty of Prayer

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If we were perfected, prayer would not be a duty, it would be a delight. Some day, please God, it will be. The same is true of many other behaviours which now appear as duties. If I loved my neighbor as myself, most of the actions which are now my moral duty would flow out of me as spontaneously as a song from a lark or fragrance from a flower. Why is this not so yet?

Well, we know, don't we? Aristotle has taught us that delight is the "bloom" on an unimpeded activity. But the very activities for which we were created are, while we live on earth, variously impeded: by evil in ourselves or in others. Not to practise them is to abandon our humanity. To practise them spontaneously and delightfully is not yet possible. This situation creates the category of duty, the whole specifically moral realm.

It exists to be transcended. Here is the paradox of Christianity. As practical imperatives for here and now the two great commandments have to be translated "Behave as if you loved God and man." For no man can love because he is told to. Yet obedience on this practical level is not really obedience at all. And if a man really loved God and man, once again this would hardly be obedience; for if he did, he would be unable to help it. Thus the command really says to us, "Ye must be born again." Till then, we have duty, morality, the Law. A schoolmaster, as St. Paul says, to bring us to Christ. We must expect no more of it than of a schoolmaster, we must allow it no less....

But the school-days, please God, are numbered. There is no morality in Heaven. The angels never knew (from within) the meaning of the word ought, and the blessed dead have long since gladly forgotten it. This is why Dante's Heaven is so right, and Milton's, with its military discipline so silly.

...In the perfect and eternal world the Law will vanish. But the results of having lived faithfully under it will not.

I am therefore not really deeply worried by the fact that prayer is at present a duty, and even an irksome one.

As always, these are thoughts from a man who had a higher mind than most of us will ever attain. I hope it helps us in our daily life to consider what he has to say on so many subjects.

Blessings...Mimi

Christian Living~

I have just finished listening to C. S. Lewis's book Mere Christianity. It is quite an amazing book in the way it sets forth what God and Christ have done for us so clearly and concisely. And Lewis has written his book in a way that I haven't heard before or since...so deep and profound that it sweeps one into a feeling of otherworldliness. At least that was my response. I feel very sure that we as humans find it very difficult to grasp what is really going on between us and Christ. But it is to our benefit to find out! 

And I found this information, which I believe will create a setting for Lewis's writing. It is from a study guide on Mere Christianity by Peter J. Schakel at Hope College. I only want to give you the original setting of the book. Schakel says that it was written during some of the darkest days of World War II. London was bombed every night from September 7, 1940, to November 2, 1940. There were 500 tons of bombs and 30,000 incendiaries and landmines dropped on Coventry on November 14. It was a time of blackouts, bomb shelters, shortages, and rationing--and a time of personal searching, wondering, and questioning.  

About this time C. S. Lewis, a Fellow in English at Oxford University, was just becoming known in Christian circles in England. He had written and published The Pilgrim's Regress in 1933 (but it was hardly noticed), Out of the Silent Planet in 1938 (it was more successful), and The Problem of Pain in 1940 (it was not a best seller). Within the next year, Lewis became better known. A serial publication of The Screwtape Letters was published and was so widely read that Lewis's name became almost a household word. Lewis was asked to do a series of talks on Christianity on the radio, and the result of his talks is his book Mere Christianity. So now I want to give you a sampling out of the book, which is for the purpose of making you think!

Christian Living

Now the whole offer which Christianity makes is this: that we can, if we let God have His way, come to share in the life of Christ. If we do, we shall then be sharing a life which was begotten, not made, which always has existed and always will exist. Christ is the Son of God. If we share in this kind of life, we also shall be sons of God. We shall love the Father as He does, and the Holy Ghost will arise in us. He came to this world and became a man in order to spread to other men the kind of life He has--by what I call "good infection." Every Christian is to become a little Christ. The whole purpose of becoming a Christian is simply nothing else.

Sometimes I'm made aware of how worldly my mind has become as I read such meaningful words. I hope it stirs your heart as well.

Have a good Tuesday!

Blessings...Mimi

Preparation for Hard Times ~ Warplanes 2

 We're in Chapter 9 of Meeting God in Quiet Places: The Cotswold Parables by F. LaGard Smith. As I said yesterday, the hard times make life difficult for everyone. But the sneak attacks might take you by surprise in a whole different way. Maybe you've been diligent about your Bible reading and prayer. You're feeling particularly good about your relationship with God and with Jesus. Your heart feels lighter and more spiritual than it has in many years.

Then you notice that you feel lonely in a room full of friends. You got up feeling spunky, but are still sitting in front of the television set at 3 in the afternoon. The energy for that new project suddenly tanks, and in any case you don't know what was so good about it in the first place. What's going on here? The spiritual invaders are dive bombing right into your life in a sneak attack. You feel tired and you're tempted to give up--to compromise to get some peace.

But there's the rub: compromising on your spiritual ideals to gain peace is not a true or lasting or fulfilling peace. Why not? Because life is all about conflict. The kind of peace you truly want doesn't come with ending the conflict, but in dealing with it...toe to toe, so to speak. And the battleground? Your own heart. What!? Are you telling me that I'm creating my own misery? 

No, I'm not telling you...James is telling you, when he says in his letter: "What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you?" Wait a minute...are you blaming me for the sneak attacks!!!? I'm sabotaging MYSELF!?

Unfortunately, it's those sneak attack desires that bring conflict...being greedy, or coveting what others have, or pride that keeps you from moving forward. Yes, it's a long list of things that take you by surprise, and that you probably won't admit to having. But truthfully, you can only find true peace when you're prepared to meet these enemies head on. And the battle? It's against your own destructive personal desires and against your fear of those unexpected calamities.  Oh, no! You're asking me to take responsibility for the unhappiness and discontent in my own life? 

As strange as it may sound, I am asking you to prepare for battle. Because it's only with preparation that the battle with sneak attacks can be won. How to prepare yourself to win? You must use the quiet times in your life to turn your heart over to God...He will prepare you for whatever struggle you have to face.  Whether you have daily devotionals of Bible reading and prayer, a quiet time of solitude and reflection on God's will and your life, or reading a book that gives you thoughts to consider, you really must take time to gird yourself with God's word. You'll find that out of these quiet times, you'll gain strength and courage for the spiritual battles ahead.

Ask yourself: Am I alert to all the quiet times God brings my way each day? A wonderful day with the family brings protection from loneliness later on. A friend's encouragement brings protection when you feel low and discouraged later. Shared friendships or family relationships prepare you to face hardships of all kinds. But you have to soak in the good times...realizing that it's God's way of preparing you, so that you're not caught off guard by sneak attacks.

Basically, you will want to do what Jesus did when He was tempted by Satan. Jesus didn't mince words: His reply was "It is written." So you must read your Bible, because you'll learn--and take comfort in--how godly people in all time periods dealt with their struggles--the same struggles that you have. And you'll come to know in your deepest heart that God was--and is--on your side. How many of you are losing your battle with Satan because you don't stay connected to God? 

What about your prayer life? Did Jesus pray? Why? Make it part of your quiet time because in times of trouble, it's your first line of defense. Call on yourself to rearm, shore up defenses, and pray for support while you have some quiet time! It's up to you to put on the "full armor of God," which is truth, righteousness, and faith. This is your only assurance of salvation! You must use God's word as your weapon against sneak attacks. 

No, we don't usually worry about being attacked by warplanes. Attacks on you and me are more subtle and come from within. You and I struggle for peace within and harmony without. But knowing that Christ fought and won the greatest battle of all time over death, we can be assured that through our faith in Him, we can gain the victory in our own life. 

Give these truths some thought and have a wonderful Sunday!

Blessings...Mimi 

Preparation for Hard Times~Warplanes

Each with his sword at his side, prepared for the terrors of the night. Song of Songs 3:8

I have two thoughts this morning about Chapter 9 of Meeting God in Quiet Places: The Cotswold Parables by F. LaGard Smith, which is titled "Preparation: Warplanes." One thought is about a book I taught when I was teaching at MTSU for a year. Another teacher recommended it, so I didn't really know the book until I had already given it out as one the students would read that semester. Obviously naive, I wondered how bad it could be. Well, for me, it turned out to be pretty bad. The title of the book was Welcome to Hard Times. The "hard times" part of the title was the name of a town in the old West that had built up out of absolutely nothing. One day a bully came along and completely destroyed the town. That was the shocker for me...as I prefer books with happy endings.

  Another thought is closer to the analogy that LaGard has made with warplanes. Kelly, my granddaughter, is married to Eric, a Harrier pilot. He just got back from a tour in Afganistan. His life on the job is training in his Harrier jet with his squadron. You're probably wondering: What does this have to do with my spiritual life?

In this parable, LaGard talks about his walks into the beautiful Cotswold hills, where he can look down on life below, almost Godlike. But it seems that the hills and valleys of this area are perfect for practicing wartime manuevers for the Royal Air Force. So one day, when he was deep in  reverie, war planes came swooping down at him, which was not only jarring, but shook his body and nerves to the bone. It felt like an invasion!

 Life is like that, isn't it? Our lives resemble a war zone, because life is about conflict. You may be going along very well, when suddenly--out of nowhere--comes bad news! From peace and security, you're thrown into catastrophe! The bad news may be unbelievably bad...your husband has cancer, your teenager is pregnant, your child is very sick and may die. Or even less life-threatening news, but still disastrous--you've lost your job, or your child failed a year in school...and so on and so on. From a position of control and security, you suddenly feel adrift. Like a Harrier jet, catastrophe just swooped down and shattered your life into bits and pieces! And there is no escape. 

Remember how Job lost everything? Flocks and herds, servants, and even his sons and daughters...one piece of bad news after another. What had he done to deserve it? Well...as it turns out...nothing! It can happen to any of us: death and disease, alienation, fear, loneliness, and many other kinds of disaster are part of this world. And since you're in it, you may experience more than your share of bad news. 

And yet, you may have managed to get along with all your problems, with nothing being really catastrophic. You may simply experience sneak attacks of depression or loneliness or anger. And just when you thought you were doing so well! Here I want to quote LaGard directly: "Nothing is more terrifying than those spiritual intruders--those secret thoughts, forbidden relationships, and fleshly desires that drag us down. Those moments of weakness that attack us just at the point when we think we are strong. Even those times when we get so tired of fighting off temptation that we are tempted to let the intruders win, hoping in vain that we can find peace in compromise." 

I know that Eric would never allow foreign intruders into our territory. He knows who he is:  a Marine who understands why he's fighting. He knows that he's a Christian fighting an Islamic threat to the security of our country. And it makes me feel safer and more secure knowing that he's on our side. But I'm really talking now about your own personal invaders. Will you fight, or will you compromise to have some peace? Tomorrow I'll give you some ways to deal with those spiritual invaders that are destroying your peace and happiness.

We're going to celebrate Michael's 9th birthday tonight. I've got several things to do before I go to their house: wrap his presents, make some muffins, and chose something to wear. I hope all of you have a very good weekend! 

Blessings...Mimi   

Advice From One Devil to Another~

 This morning I want to give you one more excerpt from The Screwtape Letters. I hope you'll read it with thoughtfulness and decide if it's relevant to your own life. As I've said, it is a different perspective of what goes on in the non-physical world every moment of time. As hard as that is to conceive--which is exactly what Satan wants--we must do our best to be aware of the battle of good and evil for our own sakes and that of the world. This excerpt is about extremes--a problem for many of us right now in a world that is creating extremes from which to choose daily. Remember that this is written while a war is going on for Great Britain.

Senior devil Screwtape to junior devil Wormwood:

"I had not forgotten my promise to consider whether we should make the patient an extreme patriot or an extreme pacifist. All extremes except extreme devotion to the Enemy [God] are to be encouraged...." 

"Whichever he adopts, your main task will be the same. Let him begin by treating the Patriotism or the Pacifism as a part of his religion. Then let him, under the influence of partisan spirit, come to regard it as the most important part. Then quietly and gradually nurse him on to the stage at which the religion becomes merely part of the "Cause," in which Christianity is valued chiefly because of the excellent arguments it can produce in favour of the British war effort or of pacifism. The attitude which you want to guard against is that in which temporal affairs are treated primarily as material for obedience. Once you have made the World an end, and faith a means, you have almost won your man, and it makes very little difference what kind of worldly end he is pursuing. Provided that meetings, pamphlets, policies, movements, causes, and crusades matter more to him than prayers and sacraments and charity, he is ours--and the more "religious" (on those terms), the more securely ours. I could show you a pretty cageful down here."

Perhaps you don't agree with the philosophy of C. S. Lewis about the subject of extremes--or any other subject for that matter. My idea is to give you a way to "think out of the box," so to speak. To jolt your intellect into real thinking--some of the meat as opposed to the cereal. And I expect you to simply choose for yourself whether it is valuable to you or not. 

Blessings...Mimi 

More Screwtape~

You may be wondering why I continue with images of devils and their thinking. I suppose it's because I'm still listening to The Screwtape Letters and find that it's having a singular effect on me. I hope by now that you're feeling some of it too--that tickling at the back of your mind that you haven't thought of this side of your spiritual life in some time--if ever. While striving to be good, we forget how easily we can be bad! This is just a short passage from the preface of the book. Do you believe that spending time reflecting on the way Satan operates in the world  might be beneficial to you? I hope you  see how this idea  catches you with its unique and extraordinary theme in so many ways:  first, mentally, then emotionally and  spiritually. And isn't that what you're praying for? To increase your spirituality!

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The Screwtape Letters, from the Preface

Bad angels, like bad men, are entirely practical. They have two motives. The first is fear of punishment: for as totalitarian countries have their camps for torture, so my Hell contains deeper Hells, its "houses of correction." Their second motive is a kind of hunger. I feign that devils can, in a spiritual sense, eat one another; and us. Even in human life we have seen the passion to dominate, almost to digest, one's fellow; to make his whole intellectual and emotional life merely an extension of one's own--to hate one's hatreds and resent one's grievances and indulge one's egoism through him as well as through oneself. His own little store of passion must of course be suppressed to make room for ours. If he resists this suppression he is being very selfish.

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You might ask yourself: Is this the way I move through the world? Controlling people to the extent of not allowing them to be who they are? Mothers can do this to their children, or the father to his children, or the children to their parents when they're old. Wives to their husbands or husbands to their wives. Elders to their congregation. The government to the people. I've definitely noticed that it's pretty much everywhere--control and conquer. Seems that no one wants you to be you! Satan and his angels--and all who deny Christ--are in rebellion. If you're not a believer--and I mean a true believer--then you're in rebellion as well. It makes for a world of controlling people who do not care about your happiness or your peace! Think about it.

Have a good Thursday!

Blessings...Mimi 

Screwtape to Wormwood on Aging: Middle Age

Well, I have to say that this is an interesting and mind-rattling kind of experience. I'm used to reading the Bible and writing lessons which are generously filled with God's goodness, mercy, kindness and love. Exhorting others to see this fact is a goal that keeps me involved with the project. But having recently found a dramatic recording of The Screwtape Letters, I'm seeing how it has affected my mind with a jarring interruption of daily thinking. In a way, it isn't surprising, but in another way I find it more energizing than I expected. Maybe that's because we fall into a trap of sorts--not thinking of Satan's constant barrage of tactics to get us to be something other than God wants us to be. How easily we fall into traps is a frustrating and frightening thought, but we must recognize that without some effort on our part to keep our hearts and minds in the right and righteous place, it won't happen. I encourage you to find a time each day to fill your mind with God's word.

And I'm going to give you another passage from The Screwtape Letters--partly because I am not taking the time to write pieces for my blog right now, but mainly because I want to share it with you for your contemplation.

Aging: Middle Age

Senior devil Screwtape to junior devil Wormwood:

The long, dull, monotonous years of middle-aged prosperity or middle-aged adversity are excellent campaigning weather. You see, it is so hard for these creatures to perservere. The routine of adversity, the gradual decay of youthful loves and youthful hopes, the quiet despair (hardly felt as pain) of ever overcoming the chronic temptations with which we have again and again defeated them, the drabness which we create in their lives, and the inarticulate resentment with which we teach them to respond to it--all this provides admirable opportunities of wearing out a soul by attrition. If, on the other hand, the middle years prove prosperous, our position is even stronger. Prosperity knits a man to the World. He feels that he is "finding his place in it," while really it is finding its place in him. His increasing reputation, his widening circle of acquaintances, his sense of importance, the growing pressure of absorbing and agreeable work, build up in him a sense of being really at home on Earth, which is just what we want. You will notice that the young are generally less unwilling to die than the middle-aged and the old.

I hadn't realized that I stumbled on the recording of The Screwtape Letters so early after it came out. I ordered my set from Christianbook.com, a company I trust. It has been many years since I paid much attention to C. S. Lewis, but he has always kept a place in my heart. I also ordered Mere Christianity and The Four Loves, which is read by C. S. Lewis himself. Hearing his words again is a wonderful and deepening experience that I hope you'll share. Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Blessings...Mimi

Screwtape to Wormwood on Disappointment~

I'm an avid listener of books recorded on tape! Ever so often I decide what I'll listen to before going to sleep, and right now it's Mere Christianity. But during the day--when it isn't so scary--I have been listening to The Screwtape Letters. Both of these C. S. Lewis books are reminders of what seems to have been lost in today's fast-paced world--the fact that our spiritual lives are serious and should be tended to seriously. Our repeated protestations of "I'm a Christian" may not cut it in the end. The latest version of The Screwtape Letters is a dramatization of the book by Focus on the Family. It's done by a wonderful cast of characters and the man who plays Screwtape is inspired! Jon and Phillip both have iPods and I know they'd both enjoy hearing these valuable insights about living the Christian life. I just have to figure out how I can get an iPod!

Now I don't deny that you have to be thinking while listening, if you want to catch the point of these conversations. But I'm going to give you a little taste of the flavor, so you can decide if you'd like the whole meal. Millions of people love this book. Lewis was a little disconcerted that it was so popular when his many other books were so much more profound in his view. But being more human than we'd like, we really enjoy the idea and the drama of The Screwtape Letters. See what you think of this excerpt.

This is senior devil Screwtape talking to junior devil Wormwood:

"Whatever men expect, they soon come to think they have a right to; the sense of disappointment can, with very little skill on our part, be turned into a sense of injury."

AND:

"Work hard, then, on the disappointment or anti-climax which is certainly coming to the patient during his first few weeks as a churchman. The Enemy allows this disappointment to occur on the threshold of every human endeavour. It occurs when the boy who has been enchanted in the nursery by Stories from the Odyssey buckles down to really learning Greek. It occurs when lovers have got married and begin the real task of learning to live together. In every department of life it marks the transition from dreaming aspiration to laborious doing. The Enemy takes this risk because He has a curious fantasy of making all these disgusting little human vermin into what He calls His "free" lovers and servants--"sons" is the word He uses, with His inveterate love of degrading the whole spiritual world by unnatural liaisons with the two-legged animals. Desiring their freedom, He therefore refuses to carry them, by their mere affections and habits, to any of the goals which He sets before them: He leaves them to "do it on their own." And there lies our danger. If once they get through this initial dryness successfully, they become much less dependent on emotion and therefore much harder to tempt."

Something to chew on for a Tuesday! Today I'm going to get started on all the things I want to get done before my company arrives.

Blessings...Mimi

What Does It Take To Have A Good Home Life?

In looking for some kind of uplifting reading this morning that I didn't create myself, I came across this writing about home life from C. S. Lewis. I admit I'm a fan of his, simply because he is so clear and unbiased in his teaching about being a Christian. This piece is from God In the Dock, and I believe it addresses some of our very big problems at this time. And it seems to me that people like Lewis--who study and write, observing others as they go--are ahead of their time in more ways than he could imagine. So here straight out of the book are some thought-provoking words.

Realistic Expectations ~

If Christian teachers wish to recall Christian people to domesticity--and I, for one, believe that people must be recalled to it--the first necessity is to stop telling lies about home life and to substitute realistic teaching. Perhaps the fundamental principles would be something like this.

1. Since the Fall no organization or way of life whatever has a natural tendency to go right.... The family, like the nation, can be offered to God, can be converted and redeemed, and will then become the channel of particular blessings and graces. But, like everything else that is human, it needs redemption. Unredeemed, it will produce only particular temptations, corruptions, and miseries. Charity begins at home: so does uncharity.

2. By the conversion or sanctification of family life we must be careful to mean something more than the preservation of "love" in the sense of natural affection. Love (in that sense) is not enough. Affection, as distinct from charity, is not a cause of lasting happiness. Left to its natural bent affection becomes in the end greedy, naggingly solicitious, jealous, exacting, timorous. It suffers agony when its object is absent--but is not repaid by any long enjoyment when the object is present.... The greed to be loved is a fearful thing....

3. We must realize the yawning pitfall in that very characteristic of home life which is so often glibly paraded as its principal attraction. "It is there that we appear as we really are: it is there that we can fling aside the disguises and be ourselves." ... In fact, he [such a person] values home as the place where he can "be himself" in the sense of trampling on all the restraints which civilized humanity has found indispensable for tolerable social intercourse. And this, I think is very common. What chiefly distinguishes domestic from public conversation is surely very often simply its downright rudeness. What distinguishes domestic behavior is often its selfishness, slovenliness, incivility--even brutality....

4. How, then, are people to behave at home? If a man can't be comfortable and unguarded, can't take his ease and "be himself" in his own house, where can he? That is, I confess, the trouble. The answer is an alarming one. There is nowhere this side of heaven where one can safely lay the reins on the horse's neck. It will never be lawful simply to "be ourselves" until "ourselves" have become sons of God....

Must we not abandon sentimental eulogies and begin to give practical advise on the high, hard, lovely, and adventurous art of creating the Christian family?

Whoooo! Whoooo! I couldn't have said it better myself--which is always the problem: someone else has already said it much better than I. But I am thankful for such good common sense about a problem that is plaguing not only our country, but the whole world. And as usual, I'm asking you to give some thought to your part in the inner sanctum of your own family. It really is up to you!

Many blessings on this windy Monday--at least here in Albuquerque. Winter is rushing in with a big blow which has already begun this morning. Some areas east and north of us will see snow today.

Mimi

Eve~The Mother of All Living

And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. And Adam said: 

  "This is now bone of my bones

    And flesh of my flesh;

  She shall be called Woman,

 Because she was taken out of Man."

Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined  to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which is Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, "Has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?"

And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat it, not shall you touch it, lest you die'."

Then the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. "

~

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, "Where are you?"

So he said, "I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself."

~

And He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?"

Then the man said, "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate."

And the Lord God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?"

The woman said,"The serpent deceived me, and I ate."

~

So the Lord God said to the serpent:

"Because you have done this,

You are cursed more than all cattle,

And more than every beast of the

field;

On your belly you shall go,

And you shall eat dust

All the days of your life.

And I will put enmity

Between you and the woman,

And between your seed and her

        Seed;

He shall bruise your head,

And you shall bruise His heel."

~

To the woman He said:

"I will greatly multiply your sorrow

and your conception;

In pain you shall bring forth

children;

Your desire shall be for your

husband,

And he shall rule over you."
~

Then to Adam He said, "Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat of it':

Cursed is the ground for your sake;

In toil you shall eat of it

All the days of your life.

Both thorns and thistles it shall

bring forth for you,

And you shall eat the herb of the

field.

In the sweat of your face you shall

eat bread

Till you return to the ground,

For out of it you were taken;

For dust you are,

And to dust you shall return."
~

And Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.
Genesis 2:21-3:20
 ~

Blessings...Mimi

Eve ~ Wife & Mother 3

And the Lord God said, "It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him." Genesis 2:18
~I want all of you to think about what Eve has done, why she made a bad choice, and the effect that her decision had on the world. The importance of reflecting on this is to understand that when you decide to do something, even though you have good reasons, you must also look at the consequences! Once you've made a big decision, it takes on a life of its own and grows exponentially over years of time without your being able to control it. So the only purpose of reading about what Mother Eve did is for you and I to learn a lesson that is valuable in our own lives. So I'll continue my train of thought.
~
Now, Eve is not only out of her beautiful home, but one son has killed the other. And even though God gave her a son to replace Abel, could a mother ever forget a son who was as good and as worthy as Abel? Do you think this is part of her consequence for eating the fruit? I believe in a roundabout way it was, and though it might not have seemed like such a big decision at the time, it turned her life--and the life of her husband--inside out. In truth, it cost her TOO dearly. 

I have to wonder about the relationship between Adam and Eve: What did they think of each other after their decision to disobey God? Could they ever feel the same about each other? The consequences of their sin would necessarily change everything about their relationship, and their relationship with God. For Eve, gone were the walks with her God in the cool of the evening. Gone were the conversations with her Creator. Gone was the loveliness and innocence of her life. Gone was the security and comfort of her garden home. Gone was her independence.

Eve paid a terrible price for her decision to ignore God's command not to eat of the fruit of that one tree--the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Even the name is seductive. But may I ask you a question? What price are you paying for your sins? If you want to examine that question, look at where you're hurting. And ask yourself why you're hurting. I would venture to guess that it's because you're being stubborn about a situation which you could do something about. Hmmm...really? Being stubborn is a form of pride, of thinking that you're too good to ask forgiveness of the person who has done you wrong.  And it's also a sign that humility has abandoned ship. Oh, we all believe ourselves humble, but from what I see, most of you don't actually know what that word means. I'm not trying to be harsh--just making an observation. And, of course, I include myself. Humility is not a natural trait and has to be cultivated.

And one more observation I would make is that our country is suffering because there are few mothers at home, and few fathers who take a leading role in the family. The children are spoon fed by the government from an early age, and as they grow older, they know nothing about the Bible or God's laws. They know little of morality and kindness. And if they grow up to love God, it's more like a miracle than an expected result. What do your children see in your life? Do you say one thing and do another? That is the worst kind of hypocrisy. Life is fragile. And life as we know it is hanging by a thread. You probably haven't read the sermon by the fiery New England minister, Jonathan Edwards, who scared his congregation by telling them that they were like spiders hanging by a thread over the fire of hell. At any moment, they could fall into the fire and be lost forever. I'm reminded of his sermon because it seems to fit our situation now.

What will you do to make a difference in the world we live in? What CAN you do? You can decide that your decisions will not take your family in the wrong direction or out of connection with God. If Eve had another chance to choose, what do you think her choice would be? Honestly, she represents all women everywhere who have choices to make that are disastrous to their families. And we must remember that in spite of her choice to eat of the forbidden fruit, Eve is the Mother of all Living--that includes you and me--and is a blessing to all women everywhere.

Have a wonderful weekend. Give Eve's life some thought in comparison with your own and learn!

Blessings...Mimi