Anyway...here is what I read.
In C.S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters, we see with startling clarity the cleverness of the enemy in deceiving human
beings. selfishness has a thousand forms, most of which we are slow to recognize for what they are. I was thinking about the fear of loss and what a stranglehold it can have on me. As I listed some of the things I dreaded to lose, it occurred to me that this fear is a deadly form of selfishness. Selfishness does terrible things to us, but it does not stop there. It does terrible things to others. "Saving our own skin" usually results in skinning somebody else. Think, for example, of the fear of losing reputation, opportunity for advancement, credit, recognition, position, beauty, youth, health, money, the love of friends or children, compliments, popularity, security, privacy, rights, people you love, job, home, dreams, and power.
As I considered each of these separately, I began to think what sort of sin each king of loss tempts me to commit. Then I thought about what kind of faith is required to enable me to commit those fears to God. Has He, in fact, made provision for these things? The list is not a list of sins----make no mistake about that. It is a list of blessings, of gifts from God. But to grasp them selfishly and greedily, to hang on to them fiercely and allow myself to be enslaved by the fear of losing them, is to deny Christ. "Do not fear," He says to us, "for I am with you." (Isaiah 41:10)
Never thought of it quite like that before.
And...just another little blessing for you...
This....is just about as good as it gets! Look at that smile! -->
Gage at 6 months old with my mom(or Lolly as the GK's call her)
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