Forgive or be Food

“The real test is this. Suppose one reads a story of filthy atrocities in the paper. Then suppose that something turns up suggesting that the story might not be quite true, or not quite so bad as it was made out. Is one’s first feeling, ‘Thank God, even they aren’t quite so bad as that,’ or is it a feeling of disappointment, and even a determination to cling to the first story for the sheer pleasure of thinking your enemies as bad as possible? If it is the second then it is, I am afraid, the first step in a process which, if followed to the end, will make us into devils.” – C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

I had considered posting the above quote at the height of the Trump presidency, but I find it to be far more personally convicting and important for myself and my set now that our party is not currently in power. As I have previously written the largest problem with those who profess Christ is that many are lying. They actually worship at another alter. Their gods are presidents, genders, or movements. And since humans inevitably become what we worship is it any surprise that the church finds itself surrounded by and filled with devils.

It never hurts to run a self diagnostic and Lewis here provides a helpful tool to show where our affections truly lie. Are we becoming more like Christ with growing charity and forgiveness, or more like Screwtapes Father Below, with an insatiable desire to devour another. Unaware that we would be his food later.