Friday, July 24- Mere 3.7-9

Chapter 7
-I suppose that Lewis is correct in his idea that loving our enemy/forgiveness is more unpopular than chastity. Even within Christian people loving our enemies is an extremely difficult thing to do and nobody really wants to do it.
-I like his idea of calculus being a difficult way to start math so maybe simple addition is better. Forgiveness is much the same way. It’s hard to jump to the high levels without first spending time mastering the lower levels. We must learn to forgive at the simpler levels or we will run into the doom of not being able to forgive more difficult circumstances.
-The difference between being fond of them and forgiving them is also important to note. Often times people have the incorrect notion that we must be their best friend. Forgiveness doesn’t require that kind of affection.

Chapter 8
-It is true that people loath prideful people. It’s kind of strange that people loath it in others yet are so content to be it themselves. I agree that pride is the central vice. It is a motivation to do many other ungodly activities.
-Pride as a competitive activity is a good way to think about it. Without competition there would be no pride. If people couldn’t compare themselves to another there would be no reason to be prideful. It’s weird that people are so driven to be better than other people. What’s the difference if you have more money, more talent, or more beauty. People are so happy when their content, but people also so often choose to be competitive in and endless war.
-Lewis writes that as long as you are proud you cannot know God. This makes sense in many ways. Many people who refuse to believe in God do so because they think they can provide a better way themselves, or find more happiness on their own.
-Pride really is a spiritual cancer that eats away at us slowly and can be extremely difficult to rid ourselves of.

Chapter 9
-Charity means love in the Christian sense. I often think of it in the smaller sense of giving to the poor. His distinguishment of love not meaning feelings but of the will is important. We far to often make love mean the feeling.
-I like his rule about acting as if we did love our neighbor and just doing good. If we spend a lot of time determining if we like or dislike people it would waste time. Doing good turns to people will increase our like for them. It is true that good and evil increase at compound interest. People love to hate people more and more. It’s very relentless how we hate. And people love to do good to people they like more and more. It’s very difficult to cross those lines and do the opposite.
-Lewis idea that to love God we should do the same as the rule, act as if we did. In doing so we will learn to love God more and more. And in learning to love God it’s a very nice reference to know that God’s love for us isn’t fleeting.