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Book Notes: The Importance of Every Decision

By: andyd (Diary)  |  January 16th, 2011 at 08:44 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Last week,  I wasn’t able to put an entry in here for the reading due to illness.  It looks like I wasn’t the only one sick, so I am going to cover pages 88 through 133 this week.

There are actually a number of points in this weeks reading that are worth discussion.  But as I looked back over the chapters, there was one section I kept coming back to.  I felt if we only remembered one thing from this weeks reading, this was it.  From the section on Morality and Psychoanalysis:

People often think of Christian morality as a kind of bargain in which God says, “If you keep a lot of rules I’ll reward you, and if you don’t I’ll do the other thing.”  I do not think that is the best way of looking at it.  I  would much rather say that every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before.  And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing either into a heavenly creature or into a hellish creature…

I think this is pretty significant.  In every decision we make, we face choices that will result in us being more heavenly or more hellish.  Some decisions may not have any real significant impact (do I eat the red apple or the green apple?).  Others may have lasting consequences (do I return the extra change the clerk gave me?).  The decisions we make lead us down one path or the other.

Sometimes we forget this in our everyday lives. Sometimes taking the easy way out is easier than doing the right thing.  To make ourselves more heavenly, we have to do the right thing, even if it’s not the easy thing.  If we have already made too many of the “hellish” decisions, we can start today with the “heavenly” decisions.

For Next Week:  I am carrying over the reading assignment from last week.  I am covering up to Book 4, Chapter 3.  Have a good week.

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  • penguin2

    in order to cover additional material. Your focusing on Lewis’ concept about the choices we make, it leads nicely into his discussion about several virtues, and the choices involved with them. His thoughts about sexuality, morality and chastity are interesting and helpful. It is clear that in his day, they faced the same thing we do about pushing the envelope.

    We grow up surrounded by propaganda in favor of unchastity. There are people who want to keep our sexual instinct inflamed in order to make money out of us. Because, of course, a man with an obsession is a man who has very little sales-resistance.

    Then he goes on to say:

    Every sane and civilized man must have some principles by which he chooses to reject some of his desires and to permit others.

    The irony for people who think sex should be all about openness, it has actually created more confusion and his word “mess.” has credibility. He makes good points on this.
    Then he speaks about Christian marriage and defines it as a total union, and:

    It is a deep unity, maintained by the will and deliberately strengthened by habit; reinforced by Grace from God. Being in love first moved them to promise fidelity: this quieter love enables them to keep the promise. It is on this love that the engine of marriage is run: being in love was the explosion that started it.

    On forgiveness, he says the idea of loving your neighbor as thyself, does include “thy enemy.” But he also says:

    Does loving your enemy mean not punishing him? No, for loving myself does not mean that I ought not to subject myself to punishment–even to death.

    And then he covers “The Great Sin.” Pride or self-conceit. Lewis believes that the “center of Christian morals is humility.” I think he is right; from this one virtue so many good choices and life affirming behaviors will seed.
    One last thought that he had about charity, even if you cannot love your neighbor, the very act of trying is what is important. It is the effort that takes you in the right direction. It is not that we are, or can be 100% successful, but

    even the attempted virtue brings light; indulgence brings fog.

    • http://politicalfriendsblog.com andyd

      and you have done a great job of covering a lot of the material. I had to pause a number of times in the reading of these virtues to consider what he had to say on these issues. I also thought it was very interesting that he recognized marketing people and others what pushing the envelope on the “chastity” issue.