all the wicked in the land;
I will cut off every evildoer
from the city of the LORD.
- Psalm 101:8
"That is why the real problem of the Christian life comes where people do not usually look for it. It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in. And so on, all day. Standing back from all your natural fussings and frettings; coming in out of the wind.
We can only do it for moments at first. But from those moments the new sort of life will be spreading through our system: because now we are letting Him work at the right part of us. It is the difference between paint, which is merely laid on the surface, and a dye or stain which soaks right through. He never talked vague, idealistic gas. When He said, 'Be perfect,' He meant it. He meant that 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 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."
- C.S. Lewis
As I prayed this morning, I asked God to make Christ's blood seep deeply into me completely, to stain me, to dye me, to my very core, leaving nothing untouched, and that by his Spirit, every word I speak, every action I take, every object and person I touch would also be stained. It would usually be easy for my stubborn brain to take this prayer apart and make me feel sheepish for saying such high-and-mighty Christian jargon, but it did not. To my surprise, and my genuine joy, I prayed this prayer earnestly, and without restraint.
However, as I reflected on that prayer tonight, I realized that I am always being stained and dyed by other things; I am ever allowing, and even inviting other things to seep deeply into me.
While my mornings spent with the Lord have been sweet and refreshing, I now desire to make them more fierce with the deliberate intention of putting every other voice to silence, cutting them off from me, in order to let God have at the right part of me.
For only blood can wipe out blood,
And only tears can heal:
And the crimson stain that was of Cain
Became Christ's snow-white seal.
- from The Ballad of Reading Gaol by Oscar Wilde
"We are 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
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