Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13-14
“We may, indeed, be sure that perfect chastity — like perfect charity — will not be attained by any merely human efforts. You must ask for God’s help. Even when you have done so, it may seem to you for a long time that no help, or less help than you need, is being given. Never mind. After each failure, ask forgiveness, pick yourself up, and try again. Very often what God first helps us towards is not the virtue itself but just this power of always trying again. For however important chastity (or courage, or truthfulness, or any other virtue) may be, this process trains us in habits of the soul which are more important still. It cures our illusions about ourselves and teaches us to depend on God. We learn, on the one hand, that we cannot trust ourselves even in our best moments, and, on the other, that we need not despair even in our worst, for our failures are forgiven. The only fatal thing is to sit down content with anything less than perfection.”
C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) in Mere Christianity (New York: HarperCollins, 1980) 137.
In our second to last post from this classic work, what is needful is to engage “habits of the soul” which “cure our illusions about ourselves” and they teach us “to depend on God.”
I love this expression to “cure our illusions about ourselves” as Chuck Colson taught me, years ago, to “never underestimate the ability of the human person to rationalize their disobedience.”
Related to generosity, we tend not to focus on obedience to Jesus and learning habits of the soul that lead to life. Instead we focus on others and rationalize we are good if exceed what they are doing.
What is the goal of such habits of the soul? To teach us the needful posture of dependence on God. If you have room to grow, welcome to the club. We all do. Aim at maturity, or in biblical terms, perfection.
Engage habits of the soul, like growing your giving from surplus giving to sacrificial giving. This cures your illusions about yourself and it teaches you to depend on God.