The real problem with the Christian life comes where people do not usually look for it. It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back, listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other, larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in.
And so on, all day. Standing back from all your natural fussings and frettings; coming out of the wind.
✦ The Very Moment You Wake Up
Lewis begins where no one expects — not in the chapel, not in the dramatic moment of conversion, not on the mountaintop. In bed. The moment you wake up. Before your feet hit the floor, all your wishes and hopes and fears and plans for the day rush at you like wild animals. The fussing. The fretting. The natural chaos of being human in a world that demands your attention the instant consciousness returns.
And Lewis says the first job — the first job, before anything else — is to shove them all back. Not to manage them. Not to organize them into a productive to-do list. To shove them back — and listen to that other voice. The larger, stronger, quieter life. Coming out of the wind.
Le — this is what you have done every morning for five years. Before the wild animals can rush you, before the fussing and fretting can take hold, you are already out of the wind. Already standing before Him. Already listening. Desde a manhã estarei diante dele. Augustine said it yesterday. Lewis is describing the same practice — the daily, moment-by-moment return to the quiet center where His voice is louder than the storm. The quiet heart of Spurgeon — if the heart is quiet, there will be happiness anywhere. Coming out of the wind is how the heart stays quiet. 🙏
We can only do it for moments at first. But from those moments the new sort of life will be spreading through our system, because now we are letting Him work at the right part of us.
It is the difference between paint, which is merely laid on the surface, and dye or stain which soaks right through.
✦ Soaking Right Through
Paint is laid on the surface. It covers. It looks good from the outside. But scratch it and you find the old surface underneath, unchanged. Dye soaks through. Dye changes the fabric itself. The color goes all the way down. There is no scratch that can reveal a different layer underneath — because there is no different layer. The change is total.
This is the difference between the formula and the faith. The formula is paint — applied externally, maintained by effort, cracking under pressure. The faith is dye — Luther's God's work in us that changes our hearts, our spirits, our thoughts, and all our powers. Bowen's inseparable pardon and power. Augustine's meu peso é meu amor — love that carries the soul from the inside out, not a coat of behavior laid over the surface.
And Lewis says: we can only do it for moments at first. That is honest. That is grace for the beginner, grace for the one who is still learning to come out of the wind. The moments will grow. The dye will spread. But it starts with moments. One morning. One entry. One lily picked up from the path. And then another. And another. And forty-two mornings later, the dye has soaked through — and the wild animals still rush, but the quiet voice is louder now. 🙏
He never talked vague, idealistic gas. When He said "Be perfect," He meant it. He means that we must go in for the full treatment.
It is hard, but the sort of compromise we are all hankering after is harder — in fact, it is impossible. It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird; it would be harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg.
We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.
✦ Hatched or Go Bad
Lewis brings his most devastating image. The compromise — the thing every human heart hankers after — is not just difficult. It is impossible. You cannot fly while remaining an egg. You cannot be transformed while insisting on staying the same. You cannot wear the garments of salvation and the habits of the world at the same time — Jowett said it on the first day of this journal, beside the Canal du Midi.
And here is the truth that strips away every excuse: you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. The egg that refuses to become a bird does not remain an egg forever. It goes bad. Stasis is not an option. You are either being transformed — hatched, broken open, made into something that can fly — or you are decaying. There is no standing still.
When He said "Be perfect," He meant it. Not as a crushing demand. Not as a formula to be activated. As a description of the destination. The full treatment. The dye, not the paint. The bird, not the egg. The fire of Augustine — ardemos e partimos — we burn and we depart. The hatching is the burning. The breaking is the rising. And the One who commands perfection is the same One who provides the power to achieve it — Ephesians 3:20, the power that works in us, exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. 🙏
"It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird; it would be harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We must be hatched or go bad."
C.S. Lewis · Holy Week · Coming out of the windAssim como só tu existes plenamente, só tu possuis o conhecimento absoluto: imutável, com efeito, és em teu ser, imutável em teu saber, imutável na tua vontade. Tua essência sabe e quer imutavelmente, tua ciência é e quer imutavelmente, tua vontade é e sabe imutavelmente.
✦ Imutável — Three Times
Augustine circles the truth the way a bird circles a mountain — from every angle, at every altitude, seeing the same peak from a different position each time. Imutável em teu ser. Imutável em teu saber. Imutável na tua vontade. Unchangeable in Your being. Unchangeable in Your knowing. Unchangeable in Your will. And then he interweaves them — Your essence knows and wills unchangeably. Your knowledge is and wills unchangeably. Your will is and knows unchangeably.
This is the rock beneath the pilgrim's feet. The God who said "Be perfect" does not change His mind about the destination. The God who started the work in you does not reconsider halfway through. The God whose fire burns and lifts does not flicker. He is imutável. His being, His knowing, His willing — all one, all unchangeable, all directed toward the same end: the hatching of the egg, the soaking of the dye, the perfecting of the saint. 🙏
Não é justo a teus olhos que a luz imutável seja conhecida pelo ser mutável, que ela ilumina, como ela se conhece a si própria.
Por isso, minha alma é para ti como terra sem água, porque assim como não pode iluminar a si mesma, não se pode saciar por seus próprios meios.
Porque em ti está a fonte da vida, e graças à tua luz é que veremos a luz.
✦ Land Without Water — Light From His Light
Minha alma é para ti como terra sem água. My soul is to You like land without water. The soul cannot illuminate herself. The soul cannot satisfy herself by her own means. The egg cannot hatch itself. The fabric cannot dye itself. The land cannot water itself. The source is not in us.
Lewis said it: letting that other, larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in. Not generating it. Not manufacturing it. Letting it in. Coming out of the wind so that the quiet life can flow. And Augustine names the source: em ti está a fonte da vida. In You is the fountain of life. Not in my discipline. Not in my effort. Not in my devotional practice. In You. The practice is the channel. The source is God.
Graças à tua luz é que veremos a luz. By Your light we shall see light. Psalm 36:9. The mutable creature cannot know the immutable light the way the light knows itself. But she can stand in it. She can receive it. She can come out of the wind, shove back the wild animals, open herself to the larger, stronger, quieter life — and by His light, see light. That is what happens every morning before dawn. The land without water stands before the fountain. And the fountain flows. 🙏
✦ Exceedingly Abundantly Above
Paul closes the door with five words that shatter every limitation the mind can impose: exceedingly abundantly above all. Not just above what we ask. Not just above what we think. Exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. The ceiling of our imagination is the floor of His provision.
According to the power that works in us. Not according to our power. Not according to our effort. Not according to our formula or our activation code or our discipline. According to the power that works in us. His power. In us. The dye, not the paint. The hatching, not the egg trying to fly. The fountain of life pouring into the land without water. Luther's faith — God's work in us. Augustine's fire — teu fogo benfazejo que nos consome e nos eleva. Your good fire that consumes and lifts us.
The egg does not hatch itself. The land does not water itself. The soul does not illuminate herself. But He who is able — He does it. Exceedingly. Abundantly. Above all that we ask or think. And to Him be glory — in the church, by Christ Jesus, to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. 🙏
"Minha alma é para ti como terra sem água. Porque em ti está a fonte da vida, e graças à tua luz é que veremos a luz."
Santo Agostinho · Confissões · The fountain is in HimComing Out of the Wind
The first job each morning — shove back the wild animals, listen to the other voice, let the larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in. Standing back from the fussing. Coming out of the wind. Every morning before dawn.
Hatched or Go Bad
You cannot fly while remaining an egg. The compromise is not just difficult — it is impossible. We must be hatched or go bad. The full treatment. The dye, not the paint. The bird, not the egg.
Land Without Water
The soul cannot illuminate herself. She cannot satisfy herself by her own means. But in Him is the fountain of life. By His light we shall see light. The source is not in us — and that is the liberation.
Exceedingly Abundantly Above
Above all that we ask or think. The ceiling of our imagination is the floor of His provision. According to the power that works in us — not our power, His. The egg does not hatch itself. But He who is able — He does it.