[Monday's Devotional] - Alice's Quandary

G K Chesterton says in his apologetic Orthodoxy  “I left the fairy tales lying on the floor of the nursery, and I have not found any books so sensible since.”, a sentiment that appeals to me, so I offer some thoughts from some of my favourite children’s books.

In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, we find Alice in a quandary:

“She generally gave herself very good advice (though she very seldom followed it), and sometimes she scolded herself so severely as to bring tears into her eyes; and once she remembered trying to box her own ears for having cheated herself in a game of croquet she was playing against herself, for this curious child was very fond of pretending to be two people.”

If we are honest with ourselves, we all recognise this situation in our own lives, there is a power struggle going on inside us and we are caught in between.
C.S. Lewis put it this way "No man knows how bad he is, until he has tried very hard to be good."

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.  Romans 7:15 [NIV]

However hard we try, we seem to fall short of our own standards, never mind God’s.

Watchman Nee in “The Normal Christian Life” tells a story of a strong swimmer who stood by watching a fellow monk drown until the last seconds, when he dived in to save him. "Had I gone earlier," he said, "he would have clutched me so fast and hard that both of us would have gone under. A drowning man cannot be saved until he is utterly exhausted and ceases to make the slightest effort to save himself."

Our problem might be not that we are weak, but that we are not weak enough, still trying in our own strength. Only when we see our utter weakness and are persuaded that in our natural self we can do nothing, can God really work in and through us.

I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.   John 15:5  [NIV]

Father, I am unable to do anything for you, but I trust you to do everything in me.

Guy Mowbray