Hello Sweet Friends,
I have stolen a challenge that was posed to my sweet friend and roommate, Holly. Not only have I stolen it, I have revised it to my own liking.
What is this "book challenge," you ask?
Well, the challenge is to read a book a week. To read it to get it read and to try your hardest to abstain from underlining, highlighting, commenting, etc. (This last part is actually really hard for me. I have already failed..)
The point is that instead of trying to squeeze every ounce of awesome from a book (in a way that usually leaves me exhausted or so intimidated that I never even finish the book...), you read it and at the end you think back on what has stood out to you the most.
Now, I don't think that books should always be read this way, but I think there are some great reasons to do this every now and then.
(Especiallywhenyoumakealistofsummerbookstoreadbutyouaretoolazyortoointimidatedtostartreadingthem
andthesumerisalmostover.)
Now, without further ado, let me introduce you to Book #1.
The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis.
I am pretty sure I have started and failed to finish this book at least 10 times. It is crazy because I really enjoy the concept of the book (A high positioned demon, Screwtape, writing to his lowly demon nephew, Wormwood, on how to properly win a soul for Hell.) But, for some reason had never finished it. Until last weekend, my friends.
Main take away/thought provoking/convicting point: Humility. Perhaps, this topic stuck out to me so much because I have been praying for humility for months and months. (For those of you who know me outside the blog world, this probably comes as no shock as a big struggle of mine.)
I think maybe why this concept has been so hard for me to wrap my head around is because from a young age I pursued inverse or false humility as genuine humility. For example, being scared about being prideful about things, I went the other extreme and tore myself down "to keep myself in check." This only led to me being really self-conscious or overly aware of myself and how others perceived me. It is still pride, just wearing wearing a hat or a fake mustache.
I still find myself thinking over many of the things said about humility in Screwtape's letter....
1. He encourages Wormwood to help the "patient" (aka believer or soul they are attempting to capture) be aware of his humility, so that he can, in turn, congratulate himself on his ability to be humble (aka turn him back to pride).
2. "You must therefore conceal from the patient the true end of Humility. Let him think of it not as a self-forgetfulness but as a certain kind of opinion (namely, a low opinion) of his own talents and character."
3. "To anticipate the Enemy's strategy (God's), we must consider his aims. The Enemy wants to bring the man to a state of mind in which he could design the best cathedral in the world, and know it to be the best, and rejoice in the fact, without being any more (or less) or otherwise glad at having done it than he would be if it had been done by another. The Enemy wants him, in the end, to be so free from any bias in his own favour that he can rejoice in his own talents a frankly and gratefully as in his neighbor's talents- or in a sunrise, an elephant, or a waterfall."
4. "Even his own sins the Enemy does not want him to think of too much: once they are repented, the sooner the man turns his attention outward, the better the Enemy is pleased."
I tried to practice some restraint and not type up the whole letter to you. If this piques your interest, I highly recommend going back and reading it.
And, just to further persuade you...
"He does not want men to give the Future their hearts, to place their treasure in it."
"The Enemy described a married couple as "one flesh." He did not say a 'happily married couple' or 'a couple who married because they were in love,' but you can make humans ignore that."
"The sense of ownership in general is always to be encouraged. The humans are always putting up claims to ownership which sound equally funny in Heaven and in Hell and we must keep them doing so...And all the time the joke is that the word 'Mine' in its fully possessive sense cannot be uttered by a human being about anything."
"For a long tie it will be quite impossible to remove spirituality from his life. Very well then; we must corrupt it."
"It is funny how mortals always picture us putting things in their minds: in reality our best work is done by keeping things out."
"He wants men to be concerned with what they do; our business is to keep them thinking about what will happen to them."
Father, I pray for a "self-forgetfulness." Help me to understand and cultivate a truly humble heart. I pray that I would be humble hearted because I understand deeper where I stand in relationship with you. I pray that this would translate into the way I interact with others here on Earth. Teach me this deeper, so that it changes the way I live my life. Amen.
