MOOSE

People often ask this very big question: If a good God made the world why has it gone wrong? The question I came to ask myself is how did I get this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. A man feels wet when he falls into the water because man is not a water animal: a fish would not feel wet. 

If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as If there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be a word without meaning.

Wickedness, when you examine, is a pursuit of some good in the wrong way. You can be good for the mere sake of goodness: you cannot be bad for the mere sake of badness. You can do a kind action when you are not feeling kind and when it gives you no pleasure simply because kindness is right, but no one ever did a cruel action simply because cruelty is wrong - only because cruelty is pleasant or useful to him. Badness is only spoiled goodness. In order to be bad, one must have good things to want and then to pursue in the wrong way: he must have impulses which were originally good in order to be able to pervert them. But if he is bad he cannot supply himself either with good things to desire or with good impulses to pervert. He must be getting both from the Good Power. And if so, he is not independent, he is part of the good power world. 

To be bad he must exist and have intelligence and will. But existence, intelligence and will are in themselves good. Therefore he must be getting them from the good power: even to be bad he must BORROW or STEAL from his opponent. Do you now begin to see why Christianity has always said that the devil is a fallen angel? Evil is a parasite, not an original thing. 

The central Christian belief is that Christ’s death has somehow put us right with God and given us a fresh start. We believe that the death of Christ is just that point in history at which something absolutely unimaginable from outside shows through into our own world. You may ask that what if you don’t understand it, should I accept it? A man can accept what Christ has done without knowing how it works: indeed he certainly would not know how it works until he has accepted it. Christ was killed for us, His death has washed out our sins, and by dying He disabled death itself. 

How does one accept Christ? First, he needs to understand that he is a rebel who must lay down his arms. Laying down his arms, surrendering saying you are sorry, this process of surrender - this movement is called Repentance.

Repentance is no fun, it means unlearning all the self-conceit and self-will. It means killing part of yourself, undergoing a kind of death. It requires a good man to repent, yet only the bad person needs to repent. The worse you are the more you are in need of it and the less you can do it. The only person who could do it perfectly would be a perfect person - he would not need it. The only way we can do it is if God helps us at it. Putting into us a bit of Himself, lending a little of His reasoning power, a little of His love and how to love others. How could then God do it if this is something absolutely foreign to him, something he has never walked.

But supposing God became a man - suppose our human nature which can suffer and die was amalgamated with God’s nature in one person - that person could help us. He could surrender His will, and suffer and die because He was man, and He could do it perfectly because He was God

Suffering prepares

Character protects

God promotes

I remembered being 8, sitting at the dining table - practising my maths. This song was playing out of our grungy, rusty radio speakers. Sizzling away was my mother frying some chicken wings, preparing dinner for the family. As you look across the dining table of eraser leftovers and a stack of textbooks, was a harmless cane with a pink curve handle. I can hear your footsteps, and my mother walking towards you. I remember seeing how much you both loved each other, how my mother would prepare that cup of water for you, how you would talk about your day.