Book Review: The Abolition of Man

This book exactly describes the condition in which we now find our society. In the last few years, I have often imagined myself standing in the middle of a big field, screaming at the top of my voice, "This Is Insanity!" And no one can hear me. 


When I look at how far we have slipped down that proverbial slope in our values and morals as a culture, it often seems as if the world has gone mad! 


When I hear of another judge making another immoral decision based on relative truth, I want to pull all of my hair out. 


When I hear another thing that my taxes are paying for that is morally reprehensible, I want to bang my head against a wall. 


I have asked over and over and over again how "they" could have come to believe "that?" How can evil be called good and good evil? How can Truth be exchanged for a lie? How can life have become so cheap? How can all of our most basic Values in which previous generations of this nation stood firmly now be considered optional?


According to Lewis, our Society has slowly been desensitized and reprogrammed to believe that man will only be "free" to become what he should become when he has shed his loyalty to those underlying principles on which all of society has previously stood: "General Beneficence, Special Beneficence, Duties to Parents or Elders or Ancestors, Duties to Children and Posterity, The Law of Justice, The Law of Good Faith and Veracity, The Law of Mercy, The Law of Magnanimity." These principles are common to all the major value systems in history: Platonic, Aristotelian, Stoic, Christian, and Oriental. 

"But what is common to them all is something we cannot neglect. It is the doctrine of objective value, the belief that certain attitudes are really true, and others really false, to the kind of thing the universe is and the kind of things we are."

Lewis calls this foundational belief system the Tao for the purpose of this discussion and defines people as those "inside" the Tao (belief in Absolutes, Objective Values) and those "outside" the Tao (Those who define things according to their personal motivations and desires). 


As the "powers that be" have shifted more and more to being "outside the Tao," their efforts to reprogram minds have infiltrated the most basic principles of education. 

"Hence the educational problem is wholly different according as you stand within or without the Tao. For those within, the task is to train in the pupil those responses which are in themselves appropriate, whether anyone is making them or not, and in making which the very nature of man consists. Those without, if they are logical, must regard all sentiments as equally non-rational, as mere mists between us and the real objects. As a result, they must either decide to remove all sentiments, as far as possible, from the pupil's mind: or else to encourage some sentiments for reasons that have nothing to do with their intrinsic 'justness' or 'ordinacy.' The latter course involves them in the questionable process of creating in others by 'suggestion' or incantation a mirage which their own reason has successfully dissipated."

When the ultimate "reason" behind the decisions a society makes are no longer founded on objective values, what rises to the top of the motivation behind actions is supposedly "Instinct." Here is where we see so much of the devastating results of Darwin's "theories" and the havoc they have wrought to the very underpinnings of civilization. (I would LOVE to witness a debate between Lewis and Darwin. Lewis would eat his lunch!) When the reasons behind the actions are reduced to "Instinct," as if that which is "basest" in man is best, then all bets are off. One person can claim "Instinct" when committing any crime he feels like committing because "Instinct" can be wholly defined by the individual with no dependence on or responsibility to cultural mores, laws, values, or conscience. What is right for one is "right" simply because that one says it's right, regardless of the effects of his choice on anyone else. 


So everything that is noble, honorable, self-sacrificing in the human race, everything that elevates man above beast is relegated to the cultural trash heap and what started as a quest for freedom to attain man's highest form results in the Abolition of Man.  

"If nothing is self-evident, nothing can be proved. Similarly, if nothing is obligatory for its own sake, nothing is obligatory at all."

I have not come close to doing justice to the brilliance of Lewis' arguments. He is a master logician and theologian and philosopher and can unravel any argument that roars it's lies in the face of Truth. Ultimate Truth does exist and the argument and proof lies all about us when we see the reflection of Christ in man and the Fingerprint of God in all of Creation. 


So, as from the beginning, it boils down to two sides: God, or the rejection of God as embodied in the evil one. Even though it seems that our culture has come to a "new low," it's not new. It's simply a revisiting of the original and perpetual battle that wants to reject the Authority of God over the Universe.


This is #33 in the 52 books in 52 weeks challenge. 

Check Out the Challenge

Book Review: Lilith

Lilith, by George MacDonald, is a very puzzling read. It is about a man, living a normal life, going about his business, following in the path of those who have gone before him. There is nothing remarkable about any of it, until he meets Mr. Raven. 

Mr. Raven ushers him into another dimension where everything he thought he knew is suddenly turned upside down. He encounters giants and monsters, dancing and arguing skeletons, and a princess who turns into a giant spotted leopard and a blood-sucking worm. 


I read a review of this book, just to see if I was the only one who was confused by some of the imagery, and realized it's a pretty universal place to be. I have read several other books written by him, but this one is definitely set apart from the others I've read by the layers of symbolism contained in its pages. 

Mr. Vane, the main character, comes to realize through his adventures in this other dimension that he is not really alive. The Raven, who is also Adam, explains to Mr. Vane that he will have to submit to death in order to truly come alive. But before he is willing to submit to the sleep of death, he must come to the place where he voluntarily lets go of life as he has known it. But when faced with a choice to die or to continue to live only a shadow of true life:

"What a hell of horror, I thought, to wander alone, a bare existence never going out of itself, never widening its life, but, bound with the cords of its poor peculiarities, lying an eternal prisoner in the dungeon of its own being! I began to learn that it was impossible to live for oneself even, save in the presence of others . . ." 

It is only when he truly begins to understand Love that he moves closer to that willingness to die. As he learns to love the Little Ones, he recognizes that he must face his fear and do his duty.

"My boy," I answered, "there is no harm in being afraid. The only harm is in doing what Fear tells you. Fear is not your master! Laugh in his face and he will run away."

In his quest to protect the Little Ones from the Evil Princess, he finally realizes the only way they will be free is by defeating the Princess who seeks their destruction. He leads the army made of these children to the city to confront her, only to have her kill Lona, the "mother" of the Little Ones. They take the captive Princess and the body of little Lona back to Adam and the house of the sleeping dead. Each of those who enter it submit to the sleep that will make them fully alive. Even the Evil Princess, after much "tough love" decides she will let go of the illusion she has lived, the one that said she was in control and was her own master.

"When you are quite dead, you will dream no false dream. The soul that is true can generate nothing that is not true, neither can the false enter it."

Sounds a lot like the death we take on in Christ so that we may really live, doesn't it? 

"Thou wilt then know that which thou canst not now dream. Thou hast not yet looked the Truth in the face, hast as yet at best but seen him through a cloud. That which thou seest not, and never didst see save in a glass darkly--that which, indeed, never can be known save by its innate splendour shining straight into pure eyes--that thou canst not but doubt, and art blameless in doubting until thou seest it face to face, when thou wilt no longer be able to doubt it. But to him who has once seen even a shadow only of the truth, and, even but hoping he has seen it when it is present no longer, tries to obey it--to him the real vision, the Truth himself, will come, and depart no more, but abide with him for ever."

I find it fascinating to read the list of people who were profoundly influenced by the writings of George MacDonald. Among them are two of my favorite authors: J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. 

From the website The Literature Network comes this quote:

In his George MacDonald: An Anthology (1947) C. S. Lewis states that while reading a copy of MacDonald's Phantastes (1858) "a few hours later," through inspiration of the gentle Christian's words "I knew I had crossed a great frontier.".... "I know hardly any other writer who seems closer, or more continually close, to the Spirit of Christ himself."

Lilith was very challenging for me. There is still much that I don't understand, much that I am continuing to mull over. I don't know if I will ever plumb the depths contained herein, but it is fun to try. 

This is #17 in the 52 in 52 challenge. I know I have had several book reviews in the last few days, but I usually have 5 or 6 books going at once so it just happened to work out that I have finished several almost simultaneously. 

All Authority In Heaven and On Earth

"For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay 

down My life so that I may take it again.

No one has taken it away from Me, 

but I lay it down on My own initiative 

I have authority to lay it down, 

and I have authority to take it up again. 

This commandment I received from My Father."

John 10: 17, 18 

Historical Fact:  Jesus Christ was crucified.

Historical Fact:  Jesus Christ was buried.

But the Resurrection still provides the "sticking place" for many.

Examining the arguments:

If the tomb was still occupied, why wasn't the body produced? All arguments would have been proven false. The powers in authority at the time knew that the Resurrection was predicted. The guards were set in place. Doesn't it follow that if they could have produced the body, they would have?

If the body was merely stolen, why were all the disciples willing to die for their belief in Him? If it was all a hoax, what was it that completely transformed the lives of the disciples after His death? They tended to be rather timid and unfocused, immature in their understanding during their training while the Lord walked among them. But after the Resurrection, they boldly preached the Gospel with a power that did not come from any source within themselves. A faked Resurrection couldn't have produced the conviction that would empower them to that degree.

Why was Jesus' brother converted after "the fact?" 

What caused Paul, the Jew's Jew, to believe? What could have caused him to turn his back on the very foundational belief system of his life?

In the end, one of the most compelling arguments for the validity of the Resurrection was the witness of the lives it transformed. And that is still the case. 

"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."
— C.S. Lewis (Mere Christianity)

It's Too Heavy, Lord

You have probably heard someone say, "Be careful what you pray for." Why do we say that?

What if, instead, we prayed with reckless abandon? What if we just laid our lives before Him and said, "Here. Do with it whatever You desire."

No strings attached.


No qualifications. His Will, His Way, His Timing.

What would happen?

If we claim He has ownership over our lives, then isn't that how we have to pray? If He is in charge, we don't get to draw any boundaries for Him. We can't say, "You can have that whole section of my heart, my life, but don't come over here. This section is off limits."  But that is what we do. At least, I do. 

He is at work, though, growing my heart, giving me the Grace to want to learn to pray. I often drag my heels. My head still wants to qualify my prayers, make stipulations, hold back, add an exception here and there, "be careful what I pray for."

We're not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.   

C. S. Lewis               

He is waiting for me to open my palm and hold my life up to Him in complete trust and surrender. I am learning, but it chafes. I am learning, but the steps are baby ones. I often take back what I had given.

We are part of a small church that started a few years ago as a "plant." He has placed Kregg and I in a position of service there. And He is using this context to expand our spirits. He is revealing much. There have been numerous lessons. Many are about waiting, many about kneeling, many about dependence, and many about what is really in my heart. In His Faithfulness, He is deepening and expanding my faith. He wants to bring me to the place where I really trust Him. With everything. All the time.

And so my prayers are changing. And as I am learning, I don't always recognize His answers to these prayers.

A few days ago, I prayed again for Him to break my heart with the things that break His Heart. 

And then, my spirit began feeling heavy and sad these past couple of days. I didn't connect the dots. Painfully slow to "see", I didn't recognize His answer to that prayer. 

There are so many on my heart right now, so many in such agonizing pain physically, spiritually, emotionally (and all the other -ly words you can list). Then there are all those who are walking in spiritual blindness, unaware of their need. As He gives me the precious opportunity to listen to the stories, the hearts, the hurts, my spirit grew heavy. It all seemed overwhelming.

He showed Himself Faithful to answer my prayer, to trust me to bear the burden of the things that break His Heart, but I didn't recognize or respond correctly. And I allowed that overwhelming sadness to engulf me, so that I wasn't walking in joy, and I allowed it to affect how I walked before my family. Thankfully, He is patient. When my eyes were opened to the true nature of my heavy spirit, the solution was instantly obvious: Prayer.

He knows I cannot carry the burden He laid on my spirit. That's not what He was asking of me. There was no Grace available to carry it, that's why I felt such a weight in my spirit. I was simply supposed to do battle in prayer. I was simply supposed to lift each one He brought to mind, or to my door, or into this strange little corner of the internet, up to Him, knowing He is the only One Able to heal. I have no answers or solutions. There is nothing that I, of myself, can offer each of these precious ones He sets before me. I am completely unable to minister to the brokenness. But, if I lay it all at His Feet, trusting in Him to accomplish His Purposes, then the words are there. The path is clear. The specific prescription for each individual is filled through His Spirit in me. I can offer Hope because He will point them to Himself when I am surrendered. It does not matter how many dozens and dozens and dozens He puts on "my list." Whatever He asks of us, He has already provided everything we need to accomplish it. It is the loaves and the fishes all over again. And with each miraculous example of Provision, my faith grows. I can take another tiny step toward maturity in my spirit through His Spirit. Amazing! 


Holy Father,

Some days are really hard here. There are so many in pain. So many who don't understand Truth. And the price they pay for that ignorance is staggering. They live under such oppressive deception, Lord. The evil one loves to tell them they can't get to You. And You wouldn't want them if they could. They believe his lie that says what they've done can't be forgiven. That they are beyond hope. Might as well quit trying. Doesn't matter anyway.

Many have been rejected by Your Body, treated like lepers by the very ones who should offer them hope, who should welcome them and love them and be used by You to mend up their brokenness. And so they think that's the way You feel about them, too.

Some of them have actually made it into a church, but haven't found You there. They meet with others who "believe", but in what? It's hard to tell. How can this be, Lord?

And then there are those who actually do walk amongst the Living but seem unable to absorb the Light. Unable to receive the victory You have won for them. They hear Truth, but it doesn't take root in their spirits, bearing no fruit in them. Nothing changes about their lives except the title "Christian." How can this be?

Father, what about those who have received Truth and welcomed a piece of it, but refuse to die? They may "look" Christian from the outside, but their hearts aren't fully Yours. They simply try to be good people. They are working hard to maintain a certain facade, but their children grow up and walk away from You or their families self destruct. Their lives begin to crumble, but they hide it, until it spins out of control implodes. And those around, who thought they knew them, scratch their heads and ask how this could have happened. It's not supposed to happen to people "like them."

Oh Loving Father, please open our eyes, unstop our ears, give us hearts of flesh so that we seek You fully, holding nothing back. Use us to Love those You Love. Help us trust only in Your Wisdom and Provision. Teach us, purify us, open our hearts to everything You have for us. Help our unbelief. Help my unbelief, Lord. I cannot do it. Any of it. And yet you provide opportunities, repeatedly, so that You may bring Glory to Yourself. And so we praise You. We bless Your Holy Name.

And as You draw us near again to the time when we celebrate His Death, the laying of His shell of dust in the tomb, and that glorious Day when He conquered our foe forever, may we die, Lord. May we die to anything, everything that would cause us to climb off that cold bed of death in the tomb of self. May we allow You to fill us with the power of the Resurrection. May we be Life to the world, the walking dead.

Through Your precious Son,
Amen


                                                                                                                                   

Vision Casting for Our Children

How do we help our children dream big dreams? How do we help them dream of more than just a job and a paycheck? Do we even know how to dream big ourselves? Most of the messages they get from the world will be how they don't measure up, they are not enough, and they'll look foolish if they try something "big."

But the Lord did not create us to just walk in the same old path that everyone else walks: go to school, get a job, collect stuff, and plan for a leisurely retirement. 

So how do we raise our children to believe they are made for more?

"Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. 

                      Aim at earth and you will get neither."                                                                   C. S. Lewis

We have to help them understand from the time they are young that they are not made for this world. We need to give them, as part of their identity, a deep connection with the idea that their citizenship is in Heaven. Talk to them about it. Put it in context for them, for example, when they are exposed to the death of a grandparent or someone else they love. Help them by discussing it often. Everything about this world wants to attach itself to our souls. We have to help our children resist the insidiousness of the temporal. 

If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.

                                                                                                  C. S. Lewis 

Our children need to learn to recognize the pull of their spirit on their soul so they can practice listening to the Spirit. Tell them they are different, they have a different view on the world than most people have. Teach them to think of themselves as temporary residents here. Openly discuss how we will transition to the fullness of what God has for us when we leave here. Then they will learn to hold possessions and resources with an open hand, viewing them as tools to accomplish His Plans, not as things to own. And from that context, they will recognize the need to help others see with a True Perspective. They will learn to simply say, "Yes, Lord" to whatever He asks of them because they will understand that it is ALL about and for His Glory. Period. Everything we do and are here is about accomplishing His Purpose and bringing Him Glory. Help them learn to see this life from that perspective.

Because we love something else more than this world we love even this world better than those who know no other.   

                                                                                          C. S. Lewis

You may be sick of me talking about this topic on this blog, but I cannot help but testify to what the Lord is doing in the hearts of our children. He is bringing Glory to Himself through them. We haven't understood all this, but we are learning. He is teaching us why He has had us do many of the things we have done in all these years of raising these children. We simply knew He wanted us to tell them these things. And now we see why. 

Caleb just came home from several days he spent alone with the Lord, fasting and praying for wisdom and direction. He is allowing the Lord to prepare him for his time in Africa in May. He came in and sat down so we could talk.  He has been reading Radical, the book I already told you about. He had this look on his face, wonder and awe and excitement all mixed up together in Joy, because the Lord is "connecting the dots" for him. Caleb is at one of those glorious places where the Lord gives you a glimpse of His Perspective from atop a "spiritual mountain." And, as a Mom, there is so much gratitude and worship flowing out of my heart because of what He Has Done, that the screen is blurred by the tears. 

I just got home from the trip Mackenzy and I made to Seattle. And while we were together, the Lord showed me her heart and what He is doing there. He is deepening her roots in Him, increasing wisdom and giving her so much Grace. I am so excited!

Our God is AMAZING! 

And when I talk to Hannah and Jeremiah about the upcoming birth of their first son and hear their hearts, I just praise Him. They haven't chosen a name yet and many people can't understand what's taking them so long. But, I do. They are asking the Lord to show them who this little guy really is spiritually so they can choose his name very carefully, as a blessing to confirm who the Lord has designed him to become. They are asking for His Perspective about every decision in this "season of building" in their life together. It is everything we have ever prayed for for our precious firstborn.

God has done this. He wants us to think about every choice we make in the context of accomplishing His Plans, His Goals. And as we walk that way, our children learn to walk that way, too.

I have talked here, too, about what the Lord has been doing in the lives of Joshua and Benjamin. Well, He is accomplishing so much right now that we are simply praising Him. Just six years ago, these two had never even heard of Jesus. We were concerned about adopting Joshua and Benjamin because they were already 6 and 7. We worried about whether we could "undo" what they had already learned, growing up the way they did. And we couldn't undo it. But He could. He IS ABLE. The other day we got home after the younger kids were in bed and found this note taped to the doorknob of our bedroom door:

"Dear Mom and Dad,

I thank the Lord so much for ya'll, because without ya'll I don't know where I'd be. Both of ya'll do so much for me and someday I hope to do even half of what ya'll do for me. I'm hoping that I will be ready to do the Lord's will and please pray for me that I will do the Lord's will even if it costs all I have, even if it means I lose my life. But I don't fear losing my life as long as I'm doing it for my Father in Heaven, and I'm willing to give my all to God. I'm sorry for all the times that I've been disobedient and caused trouble. But when times get hard I just remember that I'm not running this race alone. I have a family in Christ to help me get through my hard times. I love you both very, very much.

                                                                                                           Joshua Conder "

It's so cute that he put his last name, like we wouldn't know which Joshua wrote this for us. :)  How can we contain this much joy as parents? 

Part of me hesitates to write things like this because I know it will cause some people pain, thinking that they haven't "done enough." Please DO NOT HEAR THAT IN THIS. Instead, start wherever you are in the process of parenting and pray. We are responsible to walk in the Light we have. We have made so many mistakes. Horrible mistakes as parents, but He Is Faithful to redeem it when we are seeking His Face and listening to His Spirit. Ask Him to show you what to do from this point forward.

Trust Him to accomplish more than you can ever ask or imagine. Pray for hearts of obedience. We have to keep asking the Lord to help us surrender more and more of our hearts to Him. He is Trustworthy. We can give it all to Him. We can place our children in His Hands. Completely in His Hands. The Fruit He is cultivating in our children is not the result of our job as parents. He alone is able. He will do incredible things in their hearts, in their spirits. And when it comes down to it, do we really have any other choice? Trusting Him is the only way our children will grow up to be who He created them to be.

I believe in Christianity as I believe the sun is risen not only because I see it but because by it I see everything else.    
                                                                        C. S. Lewis 

(Have I told you how much I love C. S. Lewis?) 

I feel this sense of urgency in my spirit for Christian parents to learn to expect more for their children. We have too often, especially in the United States, seen a diluted form of Christianity that makes us "nice people", but not Salt and Light in a dark, lost world. He didn't create us and send His Son to redeem us so that we could simply be "nice people." We can't be satisfied with that. 

John 14:10-14
Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. 


Do we believe His words? Really believe them? Do we see the power He speaks of in our lives? Do we expect our children to walk in that power?
I don't. Not as fully as I should. But I want to learn it better. And He will continue to teach me.  
 

We should. 


And it should change how we parent our children.
 

C. S. Lewis on Love

Image courtesy of The Vintage Moth

 “To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket—safe, dark, motionless, airless—it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.…The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.”

C. S. Lewis is one of my favorites. And when I saw this quote on another blog, it reminded me of the stories of so many of you that you have shared with me about Love. Even though it demands such a high price, we pay. Gladly. Because if we don't Love, we can't look like Him. We can't touch those around us. We can't really live.


So here's to all our broken hearts, sacrificed willingly because we are mothers and sisters and daughters and wives (oh yes, and brothers and fathers and sons and husbands : ). And, through our brokenness, may He enlarge our hearts so that we can love more and better in His Name and for His Glory.


Happy Heart Day!!