day no. 15,473: the ardor of the arrogant and the sorrow of the milksop

"Your efforts to instill either vainglory or false modesty into the patient will therefore be met from the Enemy’s side with the obvious reminder that a man is not usually called upon to have an opinion of his own talents at all, since he can very well go on improving them to the best of his ability without deciding on his own precise niche in the temple of Fame." -- C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

Vainglory is being overly self-congratulatory. False modesty is being overly self-deprecating. Either way, the interest is aimed inward at one's self. Either outcome delights the devils. The goal is to have faith, do your best, submit the results to God and go on with your life. That kind of humility outworks the ardor of the arrogant and dwells less on shortcomings than the sorrow of milksops. 

day no. 15,472: activity feeds on action

"Let him do anything but act. No amount of piety in his imagination and affections will harm us if we can keep it out of his will. As one of the humans has said, active habits are strengthened by repetition but passive ones are weakened. The more often he feels without acting, the less he will be able ever to act, and, in the long run, the less he will be able to feel." -- C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

Active pursuits are strengthened by activity whereas passive pursuits are weakened by activity. If you actually bear fruit in keeping with repentance, you strengthen your repentance, but if you contemplate repentance without acting, you weaken your repentance and the more you dwell on it without acting upon it, the more likely you make it that you will never do anything about it.

In other words, doing the word makes it easier to do it more, but feeling like doing it without actually doing anything about it makes it less likely that you will ever do anything at all or even feel like doing anything ever again at some point in the future.

James 1:22-25

But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

day no. 15,471: power over pleasure

"Power is a deeper desire than pleasure, though most of us do not realize this. Kierkegaard explains why, 'If I had a servant in my employ who, when I asked him for a cup of cold water, brought instead the world's costliest wines blended in a chalice, I would dismiss him; for true pleasure is not in getting my wine but in getting my way.' If we have power, we can push the pleasure buttons at will. Power is broader than pleasure because it includes power over pleasure." -- Peter Kreeft, Three Philosophies of Life

Getting what we want is a deeper driver than getting what is best, because sometimes we won't want what's best for us or sometimes we want the authority to decide what is best for us and for others to comply. If you have power, you can always pick wine, but if you want water and are given wine, you haven't gotten your way which strikes at a different chord altogether.

day no. 15,470: a seed thrust into the ground

John 12:24
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

If we refuse to fight because we are too scared to die... we still die; and everyone we love dies too.

We may avoid death in battle, but we cannot avoid it altogether. If we face death in faith, we may die sooner than later, but we will assuredly rise from that grave and in the process God may grant us the privilege of saving many of those we love in the process.

The seed that is thrust into the ground by force has the best chance to establishing roots and shooting up to produce fruit. The seed that lightly falls and settles on the soil may be blown away or eaten, but it will not live on in any capacity.

day no. 15,469: words and dirt

"And we came from dust and we go back to the dust, and in between those two moments we are privileged to bear the image of Almighty God. And when God speaks to the dust of the ground again, and we all rise from the dead, we will then bear the image perfectly." - Douglas Wilson, Don Quist, RIP

The story of our people begins and ends with words and dirt.

In the beginning, God spoke. He spoke to the dirt in His hands and it became a living man. Because of sin, all men return to the ground and the dust from which they came. In the end, God will again speak to the dirt and those who lived and died by faith will again be made to live.

The story of our people begins and ends with the breath of God. We are alive because He spoke, we will live again because He will speak again.

day no. 15,468: let go to lay hold

"We must let go before we lay hold." -- Oswald Chambers. My Utmost for His Highest

In order to hold on to Jesus, you must let go of everything else you've been holding on to. You must have empty hands in order to have them filled by God.

Philippians 3:12
I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus.

One of the efforts that must be made is to free our hands up to hold on with everything they have by not trying to hold on to anything else.

day no. 15,467: miscellaneous

"The difference between philosophy and religion is the difference between speaking and listening... Philosophy is man's search for God; the Bible is the story of God's search for man. Philosophy is words flying up; the Bible is the Word sent down. Ecclesiastes is the only book in the Bible in which God is totally silent... God is only the object of his quest, not the subject." -- Peter Kreeft, Three Philosophies of Life

Revelation comes down, speculation goes up. We thrust our guesses into the air like a bottle rocket or we receive our answers from above like the rain. Ecclesiastes is a Word from God about what it would look like if He kept silent. If He made the world and then lost track of it in one of His miscellaneous drawers in His heavenly mansion.