classic Saturday

Not long ago, I received Devotional Classics, a book edited by Richard Foster and James Smith, that features 52 devotions written by Christian thinkers and saints of our past. I thought reading and meditating on one per week would be a good goal for the year. And since I'm blogging, I thought that I could give you a little taste of that devotion in a "Classic Saturday" blog post.

The first devotion is an excerpt from Mere Christianity written by C.S. Lewis. Lewis writes about how it is hard to surrender our entire life to Christ, yet that is what Christ demands.

"Give me All. I don't want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work; I want You. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don't want to cut off a branch here and a branch there; I want to have the whole tree down. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked-the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself; my own will shall become yours."

Lewis then writes about how it is harder yet to try to live in the natural self, trying to be good on our own...

"...we must go in for the full treatment. It is hard; but the sort of compromise we are all hankering after is harder- in fact, it is impossible. It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad."

The editor, Jim Smith, writes..."when I read this essay, I was brought to my knees....I had been using my 'natural self' as the starting point. I had been trying to keep my self and its desires intact. Christ was merely an addition to my self. After reading this selection, I resolved to live each day consciously listening to the voice of Christ and letting the new self-the one that Christ gives me-come to life."

Three suggested reflection/journal questions from this selection:
1. What are some of the reasons I fear giving my life completely to God?
2. Which areas of my life am I most reluctant to surrender to God?
3. In what ways have I experienced the heavy burden of trying to remain in control of my life?