Archives by: Gary Hoag

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Matthew 7:7

“I have gradually been coming to feel that the door is no longer shut and bolted. Was it my own frantic need that slammed it in my face? The time when there is nothing at all in your soul except a cry for help may be just the time when God can’t give it: you are like the drowning man who can’t be helped because he clutches and grabs. Perhaps your own reiterated cries deafen you to the voice you hoped to hear.

On the other hand, ‘Knock and it shall be opened.’ But does knocking mean hammering and kicking the door like a maniac? And there’s also ‘To him that hath shall be given.’ After all, you must have the capacity to receive, or even omnipotence can’t give. Perhaps your own passion temporarily destroys the capacity.

For all sorts of mistakes are possible when you are dealing with Him [that is, God]. Long ago, before we were married, H. was haunted all one morning as she went about her work with the obscure sense of God (so to speak) ‘at her elbow,’ demanding her attention. And of course, not being a perfected saint, she had the feeling that it would be a question, as it usually is, of some unrepented sin or tedious duty. At last she gave in—I know how one puts it off—and faced Him. But the message was, ‘I want to give you something, and instantly, she entered into joy.”

C.S. Lewis in A Grief Observed in The Complete C.S. Lewis Signature Classics (San Francisco: Harper One, 2002) 455.

Today’s post touched me.

We all struggle with various things in life, and COVID seems to have made things more complicated for most of us.

I am taking some time at a retreat to sit with God.

Rather than ask him to sort my challenges or do the proverbial talking, he nudged me just to listen to him, to receive from Him.

Can you relate to this today?

If so, I suggest you take some time to sit with God. Just receive whatever He has for you. Rest in this. It will be good because He is good.

“There are two kinds of love: we love wise and kind and beautiful people because we need them, but we love (or try to love) stupid and disagreeable people because they need us. This second kind is the more divine because that is how God loves us: not because we are lovable but because He is love, not because He needs to receive but He delights to give.

But the other question (what one is loving in loving a country) I do not find very difficult. What I feel sure of is that the personifications used by journalists and politicians have very little reality. A treaty between the governments of two countries is not all like a friendship between two people: more like a transaction between two peoples’ lawyers.

I think love for one’s country means chiefly love for people who have a good deal in common with oneself (language, clothes, institutions), and it is that way like love of one’s family or school: or like love (in a strange place) for anyone who once lived in one’s home town…My mind tends to move in a world of individuals not of societies.”

C.S. Lewis in “Letter to Mary Van Deusen dated 25 May 1951” in Yours, Jack: Spiritual Direction from C.S. Lewis, edited by Paul F. Ford (New York: Harper One, 2008) 166-167.

Today’s post seemed fitting, at least for Americans, as there is a lot of political talk with November elections drawing near and there is a need for people to love one another. How do we think about these things and their relationship to generosity?

Let’s start with those who bless us. Who are the “wise and kind and beautiful people” in your life? Make a mental list. These people touch you with their sensitivity and love! Send at least one person who comes to mind a text expressing gratitude for their generosity.

Now, can you think of people to whom you give love because they need you? Consider their names and needs at this moment. Give thanks that God resources you to bless them, and think about what you could do for them today. Follow God’s leading in action.

Lastly, when it comes to politics, we will do well to ponder this. What if, like Lewis, we moved in the world of individuals rather than societies, since this world is not our home? Let us see ourselves as citizens of heaven and align with other such citizens.

From there, let us express gratitude for those whose wisdom, kindness, and beauty touches us. And for those who appear “stupid and disagreeable” for holding different views, rather than hurling words like tomatoes at them, let us love them like God chose to love us.

Happy are the people with such blessings. Happy are the people whose God is the LORD. Psalm 144:15

“What Satan put into the heads of our remote ancestors was the idea that they could “be like gods” — could set up on their own as if they had created themselves — be their own masters — invent some sort of happiness for themselves outside God, apart from God. and out of that hopeless attempt has come nearly all that we call human history — money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery — the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.

The reason why it can never succeed is this. God made us: invented us as a man invents an engine. a car is made to run on gasoline, and it would not run properly on anything else. now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering about religion. God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.”

C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity (Quebec: Samizdat University Press, 2014) 31.

When we serve anything but the Lord, we as humans do not work like we are supposed to. As Lewis notes, just trace the implications through human history to see that this is true.

On the positive side, when the Lord is our fuel, we operate with a happiness and peace that the world cannot comprehend. We exhibit generosity rather than hold on to money.

Many want to go back to normal (life before COVID), back to being the Lord of their lives, back to being “like gods.” Let us instead live, breathe, and find our being in God alone.

We discover happiness and peace there, which may be the greatest thing we could enjoy and share with a needy world. Share happiness richly, please.

Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. Proverbs 16:18

“When I said that your besetting sin was Indolence and mine Pride I was thinking of the old classification of the seven deadly sins: They are Gula (Gluttony), Luxuria (Unchastity), Accidia (Indolence), Ira (Anger), Superbia (Pride), Invidia (Envy), Avaritia (Avarice). Accidia, which is sometimes called Tristitia (despondence) is the kind of indolence which comes from indifference to the good—the mood in which though it tries to play on us we have no string to respond. Pride, on the other hand, is the mother of all sins, and the original sin of Lucifer—so you are rather better off than I am. You at your worst are an instrument unstrung: I am an instrument strung but preferring to play itself because it thinks it knows the tune better than the Musician.”

C.S. Lewis in “Letter to Arthur Greeves dated 10 February 1930” in Yours, Jack: Spiritual Direction from C.S. Lewis, edited by Paul F. Ford (New York: Harper One, 2008) 11.

Avarice is one of the enemies of generosity and one of the seven deadly sins. But the mother of all sins is pride. Often coupled with it is haughtiness or high-mindedness.

What’s this got to do with generosity? We must maintain a humble posture, especially if God is blessing us, and we are living, giving, serving, and loving generously. Pride can bring us down, fast and hard.

How does this come into view, practically speaking? A steward is prideful when he or she makes decisions about money without consulting the Master. Remember, it’s God’s money!

Consider another example. “I earned it. It’s mine to do as I choose.” Again, that’s prideful. But we can swing the other way with pride too. “Look how good I am doing!”

What’s the lesson today? Ask God if you are preferring to play your own music instead of letting the Musician make music out of your life. If we are honest with ourselves, we all sometimes exhibit pride.

Lord have mercy, forgive us. String us and make music with our lives.

Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Ephesians 5:15-16

“There are always plenty of rivals to our work. We are always falling in love or quarrelling, looking for jobs or fearing to lose them, getting ill and recovering, following public affairs. if we let ourselves, we shall always be waiting for some distraction or other to end before we can really get down to our work. The only people who achieve much are those who want knowledge so badly that they seek it while the conditions are still unfavourable. Favourable conditions never come.”

C.S. Lewis in “The Weight of Glory” in Transpositions and Other Addresses (Quebec: Samizdat University Press, 2014) 44.

What should we do with material blessings, especially in the crazy times in which we find ourselves? The time to give is as God supplies and as God guides. All the money we possess is His, not ours. As He supplies, faithful stewards ask Him what to do with it.

With Lewis, I concur that “favorable conditions never come.” Let me elaborate.

The “what if” situations of life will always keep us from giving if we allow them to. What if I lose my job? What if I have a medical expense? What if I some other unexpected expense arises? These unfavorable possibilities lead us to hoard rather than help. So, what should we do instead? Here’s what I suggest.

Start with ask God what to do with what He supplies as it is His money anyway. Sometimes He will lead you to give it. Other times He will guide you to use it for non-recurring expenses. Regardless, a good practice is to live on a mina, three month’s income, and store the rest up in heaven. This should give you adequate cash flow for regular and unexpected expenses and make sure the money is where the Master wants it: in heaven where nothing can touch it. This also matches what the faithful stewards do in the parable of the ten minas (Luke 19:11-27). They don’t bury the Master’s money. They put it to work and return the growth to Him.

Give as God supplies and as God guides. Don’t wait for favorable conditions. Giving generously in unfavorable times can also be a great witness of our Christian faith.

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 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 3:12-14

“But who dares claim to be a spiritual man? In the full sense, none of us. And yet we are somehow aware that we approach from above, or from inside, at least some of those Transpositions which embody the Christian life in this world. With whatever sense of unworthiness, with whatever sense of audacity, we must affirm that we know a little of the higher system which is being transposed. In a way the claim we are making is not a very startling one. We are only claiming to know that our apparent devotion, whatever else it may have been, was not simply erotic, or that our apparent desire for Heaven, whatever else it may have been, was not simply a desire for longevity or jewelry or social splendours. Perhaps we have never really attained at all to what St. Paul would describe as spiritual life. But at the very least we know, in some dim and confused way, that we were trying to use natural acts and images and language with a new value, have at least desired a repentance which was not merely prudential and a love which was not self-centred.”

C.S. Lewis in “Transpositions” in Transpositions and Other Addresses (Quebec: Samizdat University Press, 2014) 11.

“Transpositions” is an interesting sermon preached on Whitsunday (a.k.a. Pentecost Sunday) in Mansfield College Chapel, Oxford. It’s contents represents a scholar trying to wrap his mind around the idea of spiritual growth.

Part of what struck me is that the Christian life leads us to humility and selfless love. And it leads us away from the desire for longevity or jewelry or social splendours. In a sense, after reading it, I conclude that we become what we desire.

And yet, we never really arrive because there is so much about this spiritual life we seek that we don’t understand. So, how does this relate to generosity? If we are chasing longevity or jewelry or social splendours, we are running toward emptiness.

Alternatively, if we pursue spiritual things which none of us, including St. Paul, can ever fully grasp, we are headed the right direction. And we move that way by acknowledging our unworthiness. Only then we begin to discover real treasures worth grasping and sharing with others that money can’t buy.

At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone. Titus 3:3-8

“We have a strange illusion that mere time cancels sin. I have heard others, and I have heard myself, recounting cruelties and falsehoods committed in boyhood as if they were no concern of the present speaker’s, and even with laughter. but mere time does nothing either to the fact or to the guilt of a sin. the guilt is washed out not by time but by repentance and the blood of Christ: if we have repented these early sins we should remember the price of our forgiveness and be humble.”

C.S. Lewis in The Problem of Pain (Quebec: Samizdat University Press, 2016) 35.

If you are observing this Labor Day weekend in the USA, recall with me the generous work Jesus did for us. Consider with gratitude the price of the forgiveness of our sins that He paid for each of us, repent, and be humble. Let us also, in so doing, not forget the purpose this work has given us.

Paul urges Titus to “to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good.” Many people are devoted to their passions and pleasures which take the shape of hobbies and self-interests. As God is watching, let us choose to live for Him alone.

Father, thank you for your kindness and love toward us. Forgive us of our sins past and present. Make us, by your Holy Spirit, people careful to devote ourselves to generous living with humility. Do this for your glory we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.

A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity. Proverbs 17:17

“We think we have chosen our peers. In reality, a few years’ difference in the dates of our births, a few more miles between certain houses, the choice of one university instead of another, posting to different regiments, the accident of a topic being raised or not raised at a first meeting any of these chances might have kept us apart. But, for a Christian, there are, strictly speaking, no chances. A secret Master of the Ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to the disciples “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,” can truly say to every group of Christian friends “You have not chosen one another but I have chosen you for one another.” The Friendship is not a reward for our discrimination and good taste in finding one another out. It is the instrument by which God reveals to each the beauties of all the others.”

C.S. Lewis in The Four Loves (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1960) 126.

Generosity comes into view in few contexts more vividly than friendship. God, like a “secret Master of the Ceremonies” brings people into our lives which bring out the best in us and we see the beauty in others.

In this classic, Lewis adds “Friendship (as the ancients saw) can be a school of virtue; but also (as they did not see) a school of vice. It is ambivalent. It makes good men better and bad men worse” (115).

So, it is an instrument that contributes to our growth and the growth of others, or vice versa. I am finding that the more time I give to friendship, the more I am blessed in return.

In the USA it is a holiday weekend. Step back as much as you can from your work, and give yourself to others richly, with kindness, grace, love and compassion, and see what happens.