day no. 15,845: soft soap or submission?

"The Christian religion is, in the long run, a thing of unspeakable comfort. But it does not begin in comfort; it begins in the dismay I have been describing, and it is no use at all trying to go on to that comfort without first going through that dismay. In religion, as in war and everything else, comfort is the one thing you cannot get by looking for it. If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end: if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth — only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin with and, in the end, despair." -- C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Comfort is not a first thing. It cannot be found by making it a top priority. It is a consequence, not a cause. If you seek comfort,  you ensure that you will not find it. It can only be had by seeking something else. And not just anything else, but something capable of comforting.

In similar fashion, you cannot find refuge by looking for it. Refuge has no address. You cannot send it a letter or from it receive a package. Refuge is only found as a by-product of a place capable of protecting you. And that requires something more of the place than it does of your desires for it. In other words, to seek shelter is to seek the strength of something or someone else. It's ability to shelter you is in itself, not in your hopes of being sheltered. It can offer shelter because it offers you something else.

If you submit to the strength of another, you may find shelter behind them, but if you seek shelter on its own, you will surely end up in the open and exposed to the elements.