For those who read this blog, if you read just to see pictures of Brooklyn and August, there are times you must, by necessity, be disappointed. As the author of this blog, it must track to some extent, the same paths my mind travels. And while there's lots of Brooklyn and August there, there is much much more. At least, I hope so! There are days when I wonder...

Today, I have been mulling over the words of CS Lewis from Mere Christianity. I did start reading this book as a tool for my apologetics Bible study, but it has proven to have topics whose relevance doesn't necessarily pertain to my study, but certainly piques my interest. One section, in particular, I will give straight in Mr. Lewis' words:

"...In the passage where the New Testament says that every one must work, it gives as a reason 'in order that he may have something to give to those in need.' Charity - giving to the poor - is an essential part of Christian morality: in the frightening parable of the sheep and the goats it seems to be the point on which everything turns. Some people nowadays say that charity ought to be unnecessary and that instead of giving to the poor we ought to be producing a society in which there were no poor to give to. They may be quite right in saying that we ought to produce this society. But if anyone thinks that, as a consequence, you can stop giving in the meantime, then he has parted company with all Christian morality. I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. In other words, if our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusements, etc., is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little. If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small. There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot do because our charities expenditure excludes them. ...For many of us the great obstacle to charity lies not in our luxurious living or desire for more money, but in our fear - fear of insecurity.

A Christian society is not going to arrive until most of us really want it: and we are not going to want it until we become fully Christian. I may repeat "Do as you would be done by" until I am black in the face, but I cannot really carry it out until I love my neighbor as myself: and I cannot learn to love my neighbor as myself till I learn to love God: and I cannot learn to love God except by learning to obey Him."

I must say, his words are really convicting. And convincing.