C.S. Lewis on pride

"Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God sate of mind...I pointed out a moment ago that the more pride one had, the more one disliked pride in others. In fact, if you want to find out how proud you are the easiest way is to ask yourself, "How much do I dislike it when other people snub me, or refuse to take any notice of me, or shove their oar in, or patronise me, or show off?" The point is that each person's pride is in competition with everyone else's pride. It is because I want to be the biggest noise at the party that I am so annoyed at someone else being the big noise...We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, cleverer, or better-looking than others. If everyone became equally rich, or clever, or good looking there would be nothing to be proud about. It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest.
What is it that makes a political leader or a whole nation go on and on, demanding more and more? Pride again. Pride is competitive by its very nature: that is why it goes on and on. If I am a proud man, then, as long as there is one man in the whole world more powerful, or richer, or cleverer than I, he is my rival and my enemy.

...That raises a terrible question. How is it that people who are quite obviously eaten up with Pride can say they believe in God and appear to themselves very religious? I am afraid it means they are worshipping an imaginary God. They theoretically admit themselves to be nothing in the presence of this phantom God, but are really all the time imagining how He approves of them and thinks them far better than ordinary people: that is , they pay a pennies worth of humility to Him and get out of it a pound's worth of pride towards their fellow-men...

Whenever we find that our religious life is making us feel that we are good--above all, that we are better than someone else--i think we may be sure that we are being acted on, not by God, but by the devil."

I needed this when I read it yesterday...I find it to be an extremely accurate description of Americans in general, and of course I would never want to admit that it describes me at times...yet it does...

Jesus, help us to continue to keep ourselves in perspective...that we could continue to decrease so that your love would be visible to those around us.

lawn game king

i am calling myself the lawn game king...which seems a bit pretentious, but i don't care. i just constructed another game today. the "bolo toss" or "ladder golf" as it is called must be the worst game I've ever played, but it was one of the cheapest games to build. PVC and golf balls...pictures to come if i ever get my lazy butt outside with the camera. Now cornhole on the other hand...i do believe it will continue to take neighborhoods by storm...

So I really wish i had something more profound to discuss than lawn games, although lawn games are an extremely important part of community building, some people think of them as rather juvenile...most of those folks just suck at playing said lawn games and as a result of their embarrassment of such poor performance they are now bitter and refuse to participate in said lawn games.

Example of the scenario above: i suck at "bolo toss" therefore, I say that game is juvenile and a waste of time...but really, i am only saying that because i suck at it, the game itself does not suck...it is rather interesting and scientifically complex in the way the "bolos" behave as they interact with the "ladder." the fact that i'm no good at it is one thing, but you also have to actually walk to the "ladder" to get your bolos between each round...maybe i'm just lazy...in cornhole there's no walking except to change ends after a game...i wish there were two sets of ladders so we didn't have to walk back and forth and back and forth. i guess i could do that easily enough, but then in stead of having bean bags or corn bags thrown in your direction, you'd have golf balls on ropes thrown at you...i'm not sure what the damage could be from an errant throw, but i would think it could leave a mark...maybe even dimples from the golf balls...these are all things you must consider when developing and building lawn games...there is an element of danger involved and that is exciting...but too much danger can limit the enjoyment of the game. very little danger involved in corn hole...just sheer enjoyment over cornholing a bag or two...

so anyway, we played lawn games tonight after a very enjoyable ecclectic meal and had a wonderful time.
jesus, thank you for friends, games, good food, enjoyment, and recreation...we are blessed beyond description
thank you for my family, for story time at the library, and evenings here at home
i feel very rich tonight

corn hole

I just finished our very own corn hole game last night...even the bean/corn bags...Sara thinks i'm a girl because i can sew...i think she's jealous...You can buy these things online, but what would be the fun in that...

I'll have to post a picture of the set...I'm pretty proud of it, we played this afternoon and had a blast even in the 90 degree 90% humidity weather.

you'll have to check out the corn hole site...I had no idea there was an american cornhole association, but it really doesn't surprise me I guess.

i would say that cornhole may very well be the fastest growing lawn game sensation since "jarts" (speaking of jarts, i wish we still had that set we had as kids, but i think we broke it from throwing them up in the air as High as we could) Everyone who's anyone is playing cornhole these days...I was introduced to it last year at the lake... i thought maybe it was just a quick flash in the pan kind of thing...but then we played again this year and it was clear that this game has some staying power...real kingdom possibilities here...seriously though...

frustration

I just spent an hour posting about going out on a limb and inviting another neighbor down(after being turned down several times in the past) and how they took us up on it...I went into the whole story...long post...so anyway...they have an almost 3 year old daughter and she and macee got along really well. They are looking forward to getting together again so the girls can play, so it looks like the 1/2 mile walk to the neighbors was worth it...even though as I was making the walk i had those fears of them seeing me coming and then closing all the doors and widows to pretend they weren't home...or rushing out to get into the car and leave so as not to have to talk to the freaky bald buy with plugs in his ears walking toward the house...

so then...right before i lost this long post i was talking about all of the things that happened this weekend that could have made me frustrated. I talked about how liberating it is to know that i don't have a right or a reason to be frustrated...then I lost the post...i almost exploded, then i remembered that it is liberating not to get frustrated when my will isn't accomplished...i felt better...so anyway, here was the list.

1. my riding mower's transmission went out(three weeks ago)
2. my push mower quit in the middle of mowing friday, i fixed it, now i need a new part for it because it died for real now.
3. the AC in the dilbird went almost totally out on us on the way down to Sara's St. paris in the 90 degree weather.
4. we went almost an hour out of the way on our trip back by taking a "new way" that didn't work so well.
5. We didn't get back until 1:00am
6. when we got back at 1:00am, cole got sprayed by a skunk, so we didn't get to bed until 2:00am

Sara will have more details on the skunk fiasco later i'm sure...

macee was typing our names and all sorts of stuff when I lost the post...now I'm done before i lose this one and end up losing my cool, calm, liberated feeling of not being frustrated about anthing...

I just asked Macee if she wanted to write her name again since we lost the last one and she said no, she wants me to type it.

macee macee macee macee macee macee macee macee macee macee macee macee macee

she wanted it to go all the way across the screen...looks good to me...time for lunch.

more on merton

The sinner who is afraid to pray to God, who tries to deny God in his heart, is perhaps, closer to confessing God than the sinner who stands before God, proud of his sin because he thinks it is a virtue. The former is more honest than he thinks, for he acknowledges the truth of his own state, confesses that he and God are not at peace with one another. The latter is not only a liar himself, but tries to make God a liar also, by calling upon Him to approve of his own lie. Such was the Pharisee in the parable, the holy man who practiced many virtues, but who lied to God because he thought his piety made him better than other men. He despised sinners, and worshiped a false god who despised them like himself.

This just struck me this morning, i knew it about myself, but didn't really see it from this angle. I was a pharisee...i thought my piety made me better than others...I used to despise sinners(and still sometimes do until i catch myself). I used to think that God despised them too, and that doing so made me a better Christian. i thought that avoiding people that were "living in sin" was what good Christians did. I heard phrases like, "hate the sin love the sinner," but they weren't substantiated by our actions.

I guess most of the above was learned by observations and not necessarily overtly taught. I just hope beyond all hope and pray that those around us will be taught something different by observing our lives. That is the desire of our hearts anyway...which may not always be seen in the way we live.

**Jesus, continue to challenge us out of the old ways of thinking and transform us by continually renewing our minds...