Lessons From Mere Christianity: Turning It Over to God

This is a post from my topic called Lessons From Mere Christianity.

Most people strive to be independent (to some degree), to have their own identity, to be individuals. This also applies when they have problems or concerns about something... often (if they are personal problems) they try to handle this themselves and do not seek out help from others, thinking it would be a weakness if they needed help from somebody else.

I know I have been guilty of this.

This can apply to our thoughts on God too. We might think that if we let God too much into our lives, it will take away our individuality. CS Lewis says just the opposite:

"The more we get what we now call 'ourselves' out of the way and let Him take us over, the more ourselves we truly become." (225)

He is saying, of course, that by allowing God to enter our lives and the more that we turn ourselves over to Him, He does not take away our personality or individuality, but rather He allows it to truly shine.

When we look only to serve ourselves and to get "ours," we ultimately become selfish people, and selfishness does not lead to greatness nor does it lead to a fulfilling life, but rather one that is rooted in jealousy and loneliness. However, when we seek Christ, when we seek to define who we are through our relationship with Christ, that is when we shine, when the best of us comes out. Lewis says as much in the final words of the entire book, and also some of the best:

"Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favourite wishesevery day and death of your whole body in the end: submit with every fibre of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in." (226)

What are you keeping back from Christ?