My subject matter may seem to have taken an uncharacteristic theological bent lately, but then, I’ve always reserved the right to bend this blog any way I like. I think, in the wake of the election there just rose in me a very strong sense that so many Christians seem to be getting it wrong, but that that was no reason for me to renounce my religion. I figured, if I searched, I could still find a lot of sensible Christians, which led me to stumble across Just Good Company, a bilingual cyberjournal. One article I read had to do with the disturbing “holy rhetoric” of war. Near the end of the article, I like what John Navone has to say, that the Bible is not some sort of “divine real estate book” (but then I’m a Lutheran with a soft spot for the Jesuits.)
Getting away from the crusades and back to domestic matters, last night, while flipping through the letters of C.S. Lewis, I came across an especially comforting, domestic idea of heaven and God's forgiveness. Writing to a former pupil of his, who was apparently struggling with temptation, Lewis wrote:
I know all about the despair of overcoming chronic temptations. It is not serious, provided self-offended petulance, annoyance at breaking records, impatience etc., don’t get the upper hand. No amount of falls will really undo us if we keep picking ourselves up each time. We shall of course be v. muddy and tattered children by the time we reach home. But the bathrooms are all ready, the towels put out, and the clean clothes in the airing cupboard. The only fatal thing is to lose one’s temper and give it up. It's when we notice the dirt that God is most present in us: it is the v. sign of His presence.
Good old Lewis. His housekeeper often said that he was “as good as an extra maid in the house” so apparently he took the domestic routine as seriously as the liturgical one.
By the way, as an American, I had no idea what an "airing cupboard" was. Had to look it up here.
9:06:18 AM 
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