Readings from C.S. Lewis

I have been reading from one of my favorite Christian writers.  He talks about our struggle to do good when we really don't want to do it.  "The more you obey your conscience, the more your conscience will demand of you.  And your natural self, which is thus being starved and hampered and worried at every turn, will get angrier and angrier."  In my own personal struggles I find that no matter how much I have prayed I feel I should pray more.  No matter how much I give, I think I  should give more.  On and on it goes and each new day brings new demands.  C.S. goes further, "The Christian way is different:  Harder, and easier.  Christ says, 'Give Me all.  I don't want so much of time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want YOU."  It seems what C.S. is saying is that the struggle comes to an end when we fully surrender.  You don't lose anything when you surrender everything to Him.

We can't seem to understand that all we have gained will be lost to us in the end.  The deception is so strong that it causes us to gather material things far beyond our needs.  Give us this day our daily bread seems to be a needless prayer.  We simply do not have enough faith to live daily without surrounding ourselves with things, money, people, protection, etc.  Daily faith is hard.  The Apostle Paul seems to have finally made this discovery.  "Whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things."