We tend not to focus enough of our thoughts on the gifts that we have, and the best ways that we can use them to be a better person and to impact others. We focus on what we do wrong, or how we can get better... but is it important to use the gifts that God has given us.
If you have been given great gifts, we must be careful not to attribute our good qualities as being of our own doing, but as given to us by God.
"Everyone says you are a nice chap and (between ourselves) you agree with them. You are quite likely to believe that all this niceness is your own doing: and you may easily not feel the need for any better kind of goodness. Often people who have all these natural kinds of goodness cannot be brought to recognize their need for Christ at all until, one day, the natural goodness lets them down and their self-satisfaction is shattered. In other words, it is hard for those who are 'rich' in this sense to enter the Kingdom." (214)
I think this is one of the most hard-hitting and also scary parts of the whole book. For those who are talented, of a friendly disposition, of whom things come easily... there is no less need for God. We do not need God less if we are more talented or if more people like us... it just makes it harder to recognize that need.
Without God, you would have no talents, no gifts. A total self-reliance is needed more than ever.
Lewis goes on to talk about how the fall could be greater for those with great talents.
"If you are a nice person - if virtue comes easily to you - beware! Much is expected from those to whom much is given. If you mistake for your own merits what are really God's gifts to you through nature, and if you are contended with simply being nice, you are still a rebel: and all those gifts will only make your fall more terrible, your corruption more complicated, your bad example more disastrous. The Devil was an Archangel once; his natural gifts were as far above yours as yours are above a chimpanzee." (215)
I think there are two main things that I take away from this:
- We need always strive to be perfect. There is no such thing as good enough (well unless you have made it to heaven, in which case you hardly have need to read my feeble writings). If you have been given great gifts, do not judge yourself in comparison to others (especially those to whom lesser gifts have been given)... much is expected from those to whom much is given.
- Your actions do not affect just you. He writes that your bad example will be more disastrous. Again, for those popular people, friendly, etc... they will likely have more people watching them, and more people that will be influenced by what they do and who they are. Each bad action is seen by others, who in turn think that that action is acceptable and encouraged. When you do something to turn your back to God, you are not only affecting yourself, but all of those around you.
God Bless!
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