Looking at Progress
December 2nd, 2007 by JohnO
I’ve been reading CS Lewis’ Mere Christianity recently, and I wanted to share, what I think, is a terrific way of looking at sin and progress in our lives. Often times we do sin and ask for forgiveness, and, hopefully, earnestly take repentance seriously. I think this small passage helps us understand why each time of temptation is significant:
Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of a ridge or railyway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible. pg. 132
What do you think?
The modern advertisement says, “go ahead, you deserve, a little ____ never hurt anyone.” This thinking is called rationalization and it is the strongest means by which evil perpetuates in “good” people.
As with most things Lewis wrote, I think it’s extremely perceptive. “The Screwtape Letters” is, IMO, the best description ever written of how the devil actually works.
I enjoyed Screwtape Letters so much that I read the whole thing through a couple of visits to the bookstore without ever buying it. It was engaging, creative, and capitalized on our rebellious nature–using it against sin. However, I didn’t take his demonology (theology about demons) seriously.
“However, I didn’t take his demonology (theology about demons) seriously.”
I don’t think you were meant to. It was a narrative device used to illustrate his main point. Lewis was a grand storyteller and apologist, not a theologian (as I think he says at the beginning of “Mere Christianity”).