Monday, August 30, 2010

Screwtape XXVI-XXXI

XXVI- “Avail yourself of the ambiguity in the word "Love": let them think they have solved by Love problems they have in fact only waived or postponed under the influence of the enchantment.” - The word “Love” is a word that is misunderstood by humans all the time. Sometimes, we expect “Love” to fix everything and neglect to actually fix a problem that we are faced with when semi-blinded or distracted by the feeling of “Love.”
XXVII- “Why that creative act leaves room for their free will is the problem of problems, the secret behind the Enemy's nonsense about "Love".”
- We as humans cannot fully understand the fill extent of God’s love, and we never will. Its part of what makes Him God. He loves us so much that He gives of free will, to make decisions for ourselves and choose to obey Him not as robots, but as His children.
XXVIII- “I know it seems strange that your chief aim at the moment should be the very same thing for which the patient's lover and his mother are praying—namely his bodily safety.”
- Screwtape is expressing the importance of keeping Wormwood’s “patient” alive. This is not because of his true concern of the man’s safety in the way that we might think, Screwtape means to make the point of how important it is that a human die at the right time, which is not when he’s in the right spiritual mindset.
XXIX- “For remember, the act of cowardice is all that matters; the emotion of fear is, in itself, no sin and, though we enjoy it, does us no good,”
- The emotion of fear is not necessarily a sin. When you use that fear as an excuse to disobey God, when you act on that fear by forgetting that He is there for you and neglect God, then it is a sin.
XXX- “It need not be much shorter; in attacks on patience, chastity, and fortitude, the fun is to make the man yield just when (had he but known it) relief was almost in sight.”
- Screwtape also stated in a past chapter that humans are incapable to “persevere.” Humans, especially me, find it hard to keep going when it seems like things just refuse to ever end. Impatience can sometimes cause us to lose hope and give up when we cannot see the ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ whether it’s there or not.
XXXI- “Did you mark how naturally—as if he'd been born for it—the earthborn vermin entered the new life?”
- Here, Screwtape is talking about the “patient” that has recently died. We are not meant for this world, we are merely “passing through.” So, technically, we really are “born for it.” And for me, this is an extremely comforting thought.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Screwtape XVIII - XXI

XVIII: “Things are to be many, yet somehow also one.”
In this quote Screwtape is writing about the trinity, and how he says that “the Enemy” uses this three-in-one definition of His being to explain the impossibility of love. This also brings into play the co-operation of many in one larger “being”, so to speak, such as the church.
XIX:
“We know that He cannot really love: nobody can: it doesn't make sense.”
God has true, pure, unconditional love towards us and He shows it in many ways, particularly on the cross. The reason why this is so hard for us to understand is because we are not God, we are sinful and selfish. We cannot even begin to fathom the true awe inspiring God and His agape love.
XX:
“As a result we are more and more directing the desires of men to something which does not exist—making the rĂ´le of the eye in sexuality more and more important and at the same time making its demands more and more impossible.”
This can be seen in many ways, especially in today’s world. The media plays a huge role in this and spreads the ideals of the “perfect body” and setting standards for beauty that can make a person lose focus on what is on the inside. Just like how we can sometimes easily forget that a beautiful ring in a pig’s nose is still in a pig’s nose.
XXI:
“And all the time the joke is that the word "Mine" in its fully possessive sense cannot be uttered by a human being about anything.”
We are not our own. We cannot have complete ownership of anything. Christian or not, everything that we have is given to us by God yet, being the selfish humans that we are, we frequently lose sight of that fact.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Brainstorming for Analysis Ideas

- Foreshadowing
- The Church
      o Hypocrisy
      o “At his present stage, you see, he has an idea of "Christians" in his mind which he supposes to be spiritual but which, in fact, is largely pictorial.”
- Metaphor of the road to Hell
      o “Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts,”
- “Power of prayer”
      o “…we have means of rendering the prayers innocuous.”
- “Muddying the waters of truth”
- Spiritual warfare and human relationships
- The building up of tiny things into something huge
      o I.e. “daily pinpricks”
- Allusions
      o I.e. “the Enemy” and “Our Father”
- Power of flippancy
      o “If prolonged, the habit of Flippancy builds up around a man the finest armour-plating against the Enemy that I know, and it is quite free from the dangers inherent in the other sources of laughter.”
- Pains and Pleasures

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Chapters IX - XII Questions

Chapter IX: Why do our “trough periods” make us so vulnerable (Lewis, 43)? Is this applicable to you? Trough periods make us vulnerable because they provide excellent opportunities for us to be tempted, and they can lead to a direct attack of our faith or can cause us to become discouraged. Yes, this is applicable to me, especially when it comes to being discouraged in hard times.

Chapter IX: What does beautiful truth about pleasure does Screwtape share? Make a list of pleasures. Screwtape shares the beautiful truth that pleasures are “produced” by God, and that although Screwtape admits that only God can make them, pleasures can still be used in the wrong context and turned into something that brings displeasure to God.
List of pleasures: food, books, music, manga, and playing with my dog.
Chapter X: What are your thoughts regarding “parallel lives” (Lewis, 51)? What does this mean to you? When people lead parallel lives they grow used to those totally different sides of their lives being different and separate and that abnormal way for them to live actually becomes their norm. To me this means that some people who lead parallel lives do not actually see the danger in their growing accustomed to it.
Chapter XI: What are your thoughts on music and joy after reading this chapter? My thoughts on music and joy after reading this chapter are that music and joy, when focused on the right things, are ways in which humans can glorify God. But they can also be used for the purpose of the devil if our minds aren’t in the right place and we take delight in music that does not have good meaning or if we have joy in those things that should not give us any joy at all.
Chapter XII: What is the “safest road to Hell” (Lewis, 61)? Do you agree or disagree? According to Screwtape, the safest road to Hell is a gradual one, one that gently slopes and has no sharp turns. I disagree with this statement because if the road is a gradually sloping one then humans will have a harder time detecting that they are heading downward.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Chapters V - VIII Questions

Chapter V: What is Screwtape’s idea on the best way for humans to die? Why? Screwtape believes that the best way for all humans to die is when they least expect to. This is because, for some people, if they are not anticipating their death, they will not be prepared spiritually.
Chapter VI: How does “...malice thus becomes wholly real and the benevolence largely imaginary” (Lewis, 28)? How does this apply to your life? It is easier for the malice of a person to be shown to those who he/she is closest to and knows. The charitable feeling that one gets would become just that- a feeling, something that mainly exists in a person’s head. Sometimes, regretfully, when I am upset I take it out on my brother even if he has nothing to do with the reason that I am upset.

Chapter VII: How do you picture the devil? What does this chapter challenge you about regarding the spiritual warfare over your soul? I picture the devil to be a little boy around the age of five who is very cute, and sometimes as a man who looks very similar to Orlando Bloom. This chapter challenges me to be more alert about the actual spiritual warfare that is going on in this world. It also makes me think about the times when I get distracted and sometimes treat Christianity as something that I just acknowledge because I attend a Christian school where it is brought up all of the time instead of focusing on my relationship with God.
Chapter VIII: What is the “law of Undulation” (Lewis, 37)? Give an example of this in your life. The “law of Undulation” is that humans go through wavelike rises and falls in that which they are interested in and in every aspect of our lives. An example of this in my life is the time and effort that I put into my devotional time, especially when I am stressed about school or other things going on. And while I am working on it, I have noticed that the effort that I put into it fluctuates.
Chapter VIII: “Our cause is never more in danger, than when a human, no longer desiring, but intending, to do our Enemy's will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys. (Lewis 40). What are your thoughts on this? This reminds me of Job and how he, despite every terrible thing that happened to him, never turned his back on God. This seems like true dedication, when a person has tiny doubts yet still obeys and trusts God through it all.


Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Chapters I - IV Questions

Dedication: Note the simple dedication. If you were to write a "spiritual" book, who would you dedicate it to? Why? If I were to write a "spiritual" book, I would probably have written it with a certain person in mind who I would be trying to reach through that book and who i would dedicate it to for that reason.
Chapter I: What does Lewis mean by “real life” throughout the chapter? By "real life", Lewis is talking about that which humans can actually see and touch, claim and prove to be "real".
Chapter II: What are your thoughts on church? Is it something you “do” every week? I do not think that church is an actual building that you go to every Sunday, or an actual thing that you "do" every week. There are two types of "churches" the body of believers who gather to worship and praise God together, and the church that we as humans cannot see, the eternal span of true Christians who have ever lived.
Chapter III: What are your "daily pinpricks" (Lewis, 11)? One of my "daily pinpricks" is when someone who is sitting behind me moves my chair with his/her foot or leg while adjusting the seat I am currently seated in.
Chapter III: Give an example or two of situations in which you have neglected the obvious (Lewis, 12).  Once, while working at Vacation Bible School for my church and helping out with the crafts, I noticed that one of the glue bottle caps was not completely screwed on but I failed to pay much attention to it and a little girl picked it up and held it over her head, upside-down. The resulting incident was what should have been obvious to me way before it actually happened.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Questions

1. "I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions." ~James Michener
   Although I am not that great of a writer, I do enjoy writing. I believe that writing is a very important form of communication, a great creative outlet, and a much needed skill to have in life.
2. I could just go on and on about my thoughts on reading, but after a while this would become a meaningless rant so I won't. I really love to read, it is a sort of obsession of mine. I just finished reading Of Mice and Men and my favorite novel would probably have to be Forever Changes by Brendan Halpin.
3. I am not exactly technologically savvy but I take pleasure in learning more information about technology and I am a pretty fast learner.
4. Over the years I have found that I am a very visual person. I love projects that require creativity and tests and quizzes that make you think.
5. I would like to take this class because I believe it would be a wonderful challenge and a great learning experience.