<p>
Today's Reading<br><br>TO EDWARD LOFSTROM: A letter of great encouragement for someone who had been struggling with excessive self-awareness.<br><br>10 June 1962<br><br></p><div>You <b>are</b> of course perfectly right /in defining your problem (which<b> is</b> also mine and everyone’s) as ‘excessive selfness’. But per- haps you <b>don’t </b>fully<b> realise</b> how far you <b>have got by</b> /so <font color="#FF6C00">defining</font> it. <br></div><div><br></div><div>* get by; <span>manage with difficulty to live or accomplish something.</span><span class="hvr"></span></div><div><br></div><div>All <b>have</b> this disease; fortunate <b>are</b> the minority //who <b>know</b> () they <b>have</b> it. <br></div><div><br></div><div>[To know that one <b>is dreaming</b>] <b>is</b> to be already nearly awake, even if, for the present, one <b>can’t wake up</b> fully. And you <b>have </b>actually<b> got</b> further than that. You <b>have got</b> beyond the illusion (very common) that to recognise a chasm <b>is</b> the same thing /as building a bridge over it.</div><br><div>Your danger now <b>is</b> that of being hypnotised by the mere sight of the charm, of constantly looking at this excessive selfness. <br></div><div><br></div><div>* that = danger<br></div><div><br></div><div>The important thing now<b> is</b> to go steadily on acting, so far as you can</div><div>—and you certainly can to some extent, however small—as if it <b>wasn’t</b> there. <br></div><div>You <b>can</b>, and I <b>expect</b> () you daily <b>do</b>—<b>behave</b> with some degree of unselfishness. <br></div><div><br></div><div>You <b>can and do make</b> some attempt at prayer. <br></div><div>[The continual voice //which <b>tells</b> you that your best actions <b>are</b> secretly <b>filled</b> with subtle self-regards,</div><div> and your best prayers still wholly egocentric]</div><div>—<b>must</b> for the most part <b>be</b> simply <b>disregarded</b>—</div><div>/as one <b>disregards</b> the impulse /to keep on looking under the bandage /to see whether the cut <b>is healing</b>.</div><div> If you <b>are</b> always <b>fidgeting</b> with the bandage, it <b>never will</b>.</div><br><div>* 형절과 전구 뺀 골자문장 [The continual voice ] <b>must</b> <b>be</b> simply <b>disregarded.</b></div><div> 앰댓쉬는 술부 구분 혹은 강조상 쓰였다 보임 (주어 다음에 쓰일 본동사는 be disregarded)</div><div>* to see whether/if the cut <b>is healing</b></div><div><br></div><div>[A text () you should <b>keep</b> much in mind] <b>is</b> [I John iii, 20]: ‘If our heart <b>condemns</b> us God <b>is</b> greater than our heart.’ I sometimes <b>pray</b> ‘Lord <b>give</b> me no more and no less self-knowledge /than I <b>can</b> at this moment <b>make</b> a good use of.’ <br></div><div><br></div><div><b>Remember</b> () He <b>is</b> the artist and you <b>are</b> only the picture. <br></div><div><br></div><div>You <b>can’t see</b> it. So quietly <b>submit</b> /to be painted</div><div>— i.e., keep on fulfilling all the obvious duties of your station <br></div><div>(you really <b>know</b> quite well enough what they <b>are</b>!), <br></div><div>asking forgiveness for each failure and then leaving it alone. <br></div><div><br></div><div>You <b>are</b> in the right way. <br></div><div><br></div><div><b>Walk </b>— <b>don’t keep on</b> looking at it.</div><div><br></div><div>* <span class="st">The term <em>i.e.</em> is a shortening of the Latin expression‎ id est, which translates to “<wbr>that is.”</span></div><br>From The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume III<br>Compiled in Yours, Jack<br><br><div>The
Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis, Volume III: Narnia, Cambridge, and
Joy 1950-1963. Copyright © 2007 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights
reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers. Yours, Jack:
Spiritual Direction from C. S. Lewis. Copyright © 2008 by C. S. Lewis
Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins
Publishers.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div>
<!-- -->
