Anyone else try the above challenge, and fail miserably? I hope so; because I did. I learned some interesting things from that experiment, and the first was that it is not in the nature of sacrifice to think of Self- that is why it is Sacrifice.
I became quite familiar with
The Excuse: “So long as Self is my top priority, why should I sacrifice it?” and
The Lie: “
Something stands between me and my ability to do what is right.” (And since the only thing preventing us from behaving decently is Self, if we indulge in the Excuse, we come to believe the Lie.)
*Pride is selfishness at its purest. Every time a proud man chooses to do the right thing, it is ‘his’ choice, and therefore he claims the glory and honor of it. But eventually he will weary of the game and give up, or become set in the habit. Either way, the devil wins.
*But a humble man never seems to think of himself, because Humility is the decision to learn what the right thing is, and make it a reflex. He don't need to choose between telling the truth or a lie, because the truth is on automatic while his attention and energies are saved for meeting the next stage of unresolved moral challenges.
We must be willing to commit beyond the moment of choice, and allow the seed of potential to spout into practice, and grow into deeds. Let it become your nature, and the spout will become a stapling, and eventually an unassailable oak of Character. Only then will we be free of the shell of inconsistency and the soil of circumstance, and finally reach for the heavens.
The question is, are you willing to give up old problems and moral dilemmas, and grow into new ones? The survival issues of bird vs seed are far different than the relationship of bird and tree.
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Reading through my earlier posts, I noticed an apparent inconsistency. I once said a king is a steward who maintains the land, which is either progressing or regressing. Later, I said that as Narnia was an unspoiled world, there would be no 'keeping it from falling apart' because it didn't have the degenerative element of the natural man.
These are not to my mind mutually exclusive. Just because Narnia is unspoilt does not mean it is perfect; and even a garden free of weeds and pests needs tending. In our world, even the best leaders are constantly fighting off weeds and pests, and are often forced to allow the garden to grow wild. But in Narnia, the kings and queens can largely focus on the betterment and beautification of the garden.
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Kingship Thought of the Day: Courtesy was once a knee-jerk reaction in all well-bred children, like Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy. They came from an age of propriety, in the moments before the British Empire truly began to crumble as it began losing the world piece by piece. Thus, even in the moments Edmund was at his nastiest, he was still unconsciously upholding a higher standard of behavior- which only makes nastiness all the more cutting.
Silence