On the lord’s prayer
If you are interested enough to have read thus far
you are probably interested enough to make a shot at saying your prayers:
and, whatever else you say, you will probably say the Lord’s Prayer.
Its very first words are Our Father.
Do you now see [what those words mean]?
They mean quite frankly, that you are putting yourself /in the place of a son of God.
To put it bluntly, you are dressing up /as Christ.
If you like, you are pretending.
Because, of course, the moment you realise [what the words mean], you realise that you are not a son of God.
You are not being like The Son of God, whose will and interests are at one with those of the Father:
you are a bundle of self-centred fears, hopes, greeds, jealousies, and self-conceit, all doomed to death.
So that, in a way, [this dressing up as Christ] is a piece of outrageous cheek.
But the odd thing is that He has ordered us to do it.
From Mere Christianity
Compiled in Words to Live By