One of my favorite quotations from C. S. Lewis from Screwtape Letters -- a devil here is writing to his nephew, schooling him in ruining human patients, so the Enemy here is God: Your patient will, of course, have picked up the notion that he must submit with patience to the Enemys will. What the Enemy means by this is primarily that he should accept with patience the tribulation which has actually been dealt out to him -- the present anxiety and suspense. It is about this that he is to say Thy will be done, and for the daily task of bearing this that the daily bread will be provided. It is your business to see that the patient never thinks of the present fear as his appointed cross but only of the things he is afraid of. Let him regard them as his crosses: let him forget that, since they are incompatible, they cannot all happen to him, and let him try to practise fortitude and patience to them all in advance. For real resignation, at the same moment, to a dozen different and hypothetical fates, is almost impossible, and the Enemy does not greatly assist those who are trying to attain it: resignation to present and actual suffering, even where that suffering consists of fear, is far easier and is usually helped by this direct action.
Posted on: Thu, 27 Mar 2014 14:10:12 +0000
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