After a seemingly long hiatus, we had our first official small group in our new house. It was a blast and we really enjoyed having everyone over.
Evening Notes:
The main focus of the evening, was the topic of Humility. CS Lewis has related writings to it in a lot of his books, but none hit it as succinctly as “The Screwtape Letters.”
What is even better is that the Screwtape letters have many audio editions and is a lot of fun to listen to. For those who are not familiar with the premise, it is a book about a higher administrative demon, named Screwtape, who is writing letters of advice to his recently graduated newphew named Wormwood. Wormwood is fresh out of Temptation School and is a bit green at tempting so Uncle Screwtape is trying to show him the ropes. We never get to know what Wormwood writes back to Screwtape, but Screwtapes letters are written in such a way, that you know what is happening.
As a group we listened to the following Screwtape Letter,
Discussion Points:
Humility makes ugly women think they are pretty and clever men that they are fools
This is something we can all relate to on some level. We tend to believe humility is to have a low opinion of one’s self. Its a pretty evident thing too. You walk around and a lot of people say they are stupid, or not good enough. It is one thing that drives me crazy because it is hugely a self-limiting belief with no authority or grounds for truth.
Resource: A pretty awesome workbook on how to destroy limiting beliefs. Take the time and work through it:
http://www.mattmcwilliams.com/ray
CS Lewis does prefer for us to be outwards
A common theme in a lot of CS Lewis’ books is that we must be outwards focused. The demon’s in the Screwtape letters do their best to keep the person inward focused, to their own desires, wants, thinking, foolish wisdom and confusion. The more confusion the better. The better the individual thinks of themselves when with others, the better on the premise of the individual holding the “truth” about wisdom and life.
We must love our outward neighbor, and allow God to work on our inward heart to move forward and make progress.
To make the best cathedral and know it, but then be just as happy as if someone else had built it and how it is difficult for our society to be happy for other people.
We talked about this at length and how we allow jealousy and envy to not allow us to be happy for other people when they find success. This is especially true with money. Even then, both sides can feel justified that they deserve things better than others. Where the truth be told, God would rather us have our vision cast only on him, and be able to move freely in love towards others.
