February 13
"Those who have attained everlasting life in the vision of God doubtless attained everlasting life in the vision of God doubtless know very well that it is no mere bribe, but the very consummation of their earthly discipleship; but we who have not yet attained it cannot know this in the same way, and cannot even begin to know this in the same way, and cannot even begin to know it at all except by continuing to obey and finding the first reward of our obedience in the our increasing power to desire the ultimate reward." The Weight of Glory (p28) CS Lewis
February 12
In addressing the junior devil about the problem of distraction in the humans mind, the senior devil argues that he must encourage maintaining the status quo throughout. Quickly, we are able to get fixed into a rhythm of prayer that includes certain key elements that we find essential. Our prayer cycles around these items. However, we should examine ourselves, prepare ourselves before prayer, focus on the time that has passed since we have last prayed, and examine that period. What sin occurred? What temptations were fought? What worries presented themselves? Pray specifically and prayer becomes effective. Ask and it will be given. I have heard of the analogy of prayer and darts and I think it may be useful. When playing darts, the player does not blindly close his eyes and throw the darts hoping to hit the target. No. The player focuses on the bulls eye, he knows his target, takes aim, and shoots. So it must be with prayer.
"When this, or any other distraction, crosses his mind you ought to encourage him to thrust it away by sheer will power and to try to continue the normal prayer as if nothing has happened; once he accepts the distraction as his present problem and lays that before the Enemy and makes it the main theme of his prayers and endeavors, then, so far from doing good, you have done harm. Anything, even a sin, which has the total effect of moving him close up to the Enemy, makes against us in the long run." Screwtape Letters Ch27, CS Lewis
February 11
"Again, in a sense, you may say that no temptation is ever overcome until we stop trying to overcome it – throw up the sponge. But then you could not 'stop trying' in the right way and for the right reason until you had tried your very hardest. And, in yet another sense, handing everything over to Christ does not, of course, meant that you stop trying. To trust Him means, of course, trying to do all that He says." ~Mere Christianity p121, CS Lewis
February 10
"That walk I now remembered. It seemed to me that I had tasted heaven then. If only such a moment could return! But what I never realized was that it had returned – that the remembering of that walk was itself a new experience of just the same kind. True, it was desire, not possession. But then what I had felt on the walk had also been desire, and only possession in so far as that kind of desire is itself desirable, is the fullest possession we can know on earth; or rather, because the very nature of Joy makes nonsense of our common distinction between having and wanting. There, to have is to want and to want is to have."
This section is found in a chapter of Miracle of Joy – in one of the sections where Lewis clearly addresses the concept of Joy and focuses on it's elusive aspect. Even the senior devil is not able to define Joy. In letter 11 of The Screwtape Letters the author of the letter explains that that the causes of laughter stems from Joy, Fun, the Joke Proper, and Flippancy. "Laughter at such a time [Joy] shows that they are not the real cause. What that real cause is we do not know. Something like it is expressed in much of that detestable art which the humans call Music, and something like it occurs in Heaven – a meaningless acceleration in the rhythm of celestial experience, quite opaque to us." Joy does not necessarily need an identifiable earthly cause. For Lewis Joy does not have a direct cause and effect on this earth. There is something additional that needs to be there. In some sense, I believe, this component would be the feeling within humans that their purpose includes something which is not part of the physical world. Joy [or possibly gratitude and praise?] comes when things are experienced in their true setting understanding that something else must be the source of the beauty.
