becoming undragoned
I came across this very good article on Boundless Webzine today. It talks about one of my favorite parts in the entire Chronicles of Narnia. Read it and enjoy!
Becoming Undragoned
by Jenny Schroedel
There was a boy named Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it. His parents called him Eustace Clarence and his masters called him Scrubb. I cannot tell you how his friends spoke to him for he had none. So begins one of the most delightful books in C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, featuring the unforgettably appalling Eustace, who liked animals — most especially when they were dead and pinned on cards.
I love Eustace, because as horrible as he is — pouting all the time, self-centered, delighting in tormenting his Pevensie cousins — he me chuckle because I can see a little bit of myself (and almost everyone I know) in him. He is funny because he is so utterly recognizable.
The richest part of his story is his conversion, which occurs in a moment is worked out slowly over the rest of his life. Like Eustace, my own conversion hasn't been quite as linear as I might have hoped — instead, it has been a fitful journey with steps forward and back, moments of grace and stumbling, courage and weakness.
Eustace's conversion involved a remarkable transformation — from beastly boy to dragon and then back to boy — only of an ultimately less beastly sort. For most people, conversion does not involve becoming a dragon first, but then again, most of us don't have an opportunity to sleep in a dragon's lair.
Eustace became a dragon after a sudden downpour forced him to take refuge in a cavern. While there, his thoughts followed their typical dragonish trajectory. He fell asleep and then woke with rough and bumpy scales all over himself. At first he tried to look on the bright side, imagining that his fierce new image would provoke fear in others and give him power. He liked the idea of being a Force To Be Reckoned With.
But he quickly realized that power is a poor compensation for friendship. Why is it that so often in life we're forced to chose between these things? Eustace reminds me of one of my childhood acquaintances. I've worried about him for years — he's even been popping up in my dreams — because he was so cruel. A few weeks ago, I ran into his aunt and asked how he was. She told me that he was doing really well as an attorney. But that wasn't what I was asking about. I didn't want to know about his career. I wanted to hear if he had become more human.
For Eustace — and for most of us — he had to face the ugly truth about himself before he could become more human:
He realized that he was a monster cut off from the whole human race. An appalling loneliness came over him. He began to see that the others had not really been his friends at all. He began to wonder if he himself had been such a nice person as he had always supposed.
As a dragon, Eustace began to see how difficult he had been. Compelled by his desire for companionship and understanding, he lugged himself back to the camp where his cousins and the other sailors were. After they realized that under all those layers of dragon skin he was actually Eustace, they begin to genuinely enjoy him, perhaps for the first time ever.
It was however, clear to everyone that Eustace's character had been rather improved by becoming a dragon ... after it became chilly as it sometimes did after the heavy rains, he was a comfort to everyone, for the whole party would come and sit with their backs against his sides to get well warmed and dried; and one puff of his fiery breath would light the most obstinate fire.
Eustace began to experience what it is really like to love and to be loved by others. He began to devote himself to concrete acts of kindness. As he poured his energy into caring for his friends, he forgot to think about himself constantly. A loving community does help balance out the pain of authentic self-knowledge. Perhaps this is this part of why 12 Step Programs tend to be successful. The awakening occurs in the context of a loving, transparent and supportive community.
These relationships protected Eustace from the despair that is never to far away, because it is, after all, "a dreary thing to be a dragon," just as it is a quite dreary thing to own up to our own weaknesses. It was so bad for Eustace that he could barely tolerate his own reflection in the mountain lake, and he needed to sneak off by himself to eat, because he was so ashamed of his rough ways.
But God does not inspire an awaking just so that we can see who we are — the knowledge is given to inspire transformation. God is light, but he doesn't shine his searing rays into our life just to expose our ugliness and sin. His light, like the sun coaxing new life out of seeds, seeks change. And this is what happened to Eustace the Dragon, whose awakening preceded encounter.
That night, a lion came to him and told him to undress. Eustace began to scratch at his skin, and it slipped off like a banana peel. As sweet as it was to be free of that scaly skin, he quickly discovered that beneath the top layer, there were more and more layers.
Anyone who has begun to try to break free of sinful patterns knows how discouraging this process can be. I often feel like I've conquered a vice in one area of my life only to see a fresh manifestation of that same vice in another. Like Eustace, I can begin to peel away layers but I cannot "undress myself" completely.
Here's Eustace, describing his encounter with the lion:
Then the lion said — but I don't know if it spoke — "You will have to let me undress you." I was afraid of his claws, but I can tell you, but I was pretty nearly desperate now. So I just lay flat down on my back to let him do it.... That very first tear he made was so deep that thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I'd ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peeled off.
Part of conversion is recognizing our own powerlessness to change ourselves. We must surrender. The change begins in a moment but we choose it again and again for the rest of our lives. Our ongoing surrender to grace is a slow walk — more turtle than hare. We are nudged along this difficult and discouraging path by hope, just like Eustace, who was always just "beginning to change."
It would be nice and fairly nearly true to say that "from that time forth Eustace was a different boy." To be strictly accurate, he began to be a different boy. He had relapses. There were still many days when he could be very tiresome. But most of those I shall not notice. The cure had begun.
Copyright © 2007 Jenny Schroedel. All rights reserved. International copyright secured.
Labels: articles, books, dragon, narnia, salvation, sin
of confession and forgiveness
by C. H. Spurgeon"Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, Thou God of my salvation; and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness." -Psalm 51:14
In this solemn confession, it is pleasing to observe that David plainly names his sin. He does not call it manslaughter, nor speak of it as an imprudence by which an unfortunate accident occured to a worthy man, but he calls it by its true name, bloodguiltiness. He did not actually kill the husband of Bathsheba; but still it was planned in David's heart that Uriah should be slain, and he was before the Lord his murderer.
Learn in confession to be honest with God. Do not give fair names to foul sins; call them what you will, they will smell no sweeter. What God sees them to be, that do you labour to feel them to be; and with all openness of heart acknowledge their real character. Observe, that David was evidently oppressed with the heinousness of his sin. It is easy to use words, but it is difficult to feel their meaning. The fifty-first Psalm is the photograph of a contrite spirit. Let us seek after the like brokenness of heart; for however excellent our words may be, if our heart is not conscious of the hell-deservingness of sin, we cannot expect to find forgiveness.
Our text has in it an earnest prayer - it is addressed to the God of salvation. It is His prerogative to forgive; it is His very name and office to save those who seek His face. Better still, the text calls Him the God of my salvation. Yes, blessed be His name, while I am yet going to Him though Jesus' blood, I can rejoice in the God of my salvation.
The psalmist ends with a commendable vow: if God will deliver him he will sing - nay, more, he will "sing aloud." Who can sing in any other style of such a mercy as this! But note the subject of the song - "Thy righteousness." We must sing of the finished work of a precious Savior, and he who knows most of forgiving love will sing the loudest.
from Morning and Evening by C. H. Spurgeon
Labels: articles, books, quotes, repentance, scripture verses, sin, spurgeon, the bible
the treasure of Jesus
This quote comes from a wonderful, thought-provoking book I am reading. Some of you may have heard of it. It's called
Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper (definitely a must-read!). This section is one of the many that really hit me. It's very sobering, but nevertheless it is true. I hope this gets you thinking as it did me. This quote comes from the chapter titled "Living to Prove He is More Precious Than Life".
Why Don't People Ask Us About Out Hope?"There is no doubt that if we lived more like this, the world would be more likely to consider whether Jesus is an all-satisfying Treasure. He would look like one. When was the last time someone asked you about 'the reason for the hope that is in you'? That's what Peter said we should always be ready to give an answer for: 'Always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you' (1 Peter 3:15).
Why don't people ask us about our hope? The answer is probably that we look as if we hope in the same things they do. Our lives don't look like they are on the Calvary road, stripped down for sacrificial love, serving others with the sweet assurance that we don't need to be rewarded in this life. Our reward is great in heaven (Matthew 5:12)! 'You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just' (Luke 14:14). If we believed this more deeply, others might see the worth of God and find in him their gladness."
As I read this, I was reminded of the Steven Curtis Chapman song "Treasure of Jesus". The album it came off of ("All Things New") is based on
Don't Waste Your Life. So as I read more of this book, I keep finding little parts that remind me so much of a certain song from that album. It's pretty neat. :) Anyway, here are the words to the song. May this be the desire of all our hearts - to show the world the Treasure of Jesus!
"Treasure of Jesus" By Steven Curtis Chapman
What can I do
How can I live
To show my world
The treasure of Jesus
What will it take
What could I give
So they can know
The treasure He is
And if I can sing
Let my songs be full of His glory
If I can speak
Let my words be full of His grace
And if I should live or die
Let me be found pursuing this prize
The One that alone satisfies
The treasure of Jesus
Amen!
Labels: books, music, quotes, songs
