Friday, August 14, 2009

To Err or Not to Err -- That is the question.

Ask an ex-smoker which is easier, smoking or not smoking?

Ask an ex-gambler which is easier, gambling or not gambling?

Ask an ex-meth addict, well, you know.

CS Lewis said it best:

"No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the army by fighting against it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down.

A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness . They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it;

and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means--the only man who knows to the full what temptation means--the only complete realist." Mere Christianity, p. 142

A Worrisome Thump

           What is that noise?             I’m jarred awake by a noise in the dark. Down the hallway—a bump or a thump. My action thriller b...