"OK, I admit that I am a pain in the Assimilation."

Still Crazy (and single) After all these Years.

For those of you who might have been confused (I got a number of messages asking if congratulations were in order and What's the deal with the marriage blog) by my Sunday post announcing "I got married on Thursday," I am actually still single, in the cultural sense. And per this "big news" I doubt that I will be getting a call to be the next contestant on The Bachelor (I can dream, can't I?).  My point was a moment of continued purging of some poisons from my past; my two previous marriages. Two amazing women. Two genuine, injured hearts. Two cases of my own mistaken identity. Masterful disguises. Crimes of passion. And the amazing power of a grace-full God who forgives, embraces and gives you another (and another) chance to get it right. 

What's in a Word?

I looooove C.S. Lewis. I just cannot consume enough of his writing and point of (life and faith) view. I am reading The Problem of Pain (might have something to do with the last post...just maybe). In the current chapter, he is speaking about the paradox between God, who is love and all that is good, and the condition of human wickedness.  He uses a phrase with a word that grabbed me: "...even Pagan society has usually recognised 'shamelessness' as the nadir of the soul." 

nadir (noun)

1. an extreme state of adversity; the lowest point of anything

2. the point below the observer that is directly opposite the zenith on the imaginary sphere against which celestial bodies appear to be projected

Then...he continues with another grabber: "In trying to extirpate shame we have broken one of the ramparts of the human spirit, madly exulting in the work as the Trojans exulted when they broke their walls and pulled the horse into Troy."

extirpate (verb)

1. Destroy completely, as if down to the roots

2. Pull up by or as if by the roots

3. Surgically remove (an organ)

Great words and powerfully disarming images he uses to convey the extremes expressed in the wickedness of our lives in "physical terms": 

- The lowest point of anything: been there, done that, do that?

- Destroying living things by pulling them out by the roots: been there, done that, do that?

That word, wickedness, gives many people (me, too) pause and feelings of shame. I want to stand up and say, "Hold on, I'm not a wicked guy. Really." And then just about the time I am ready to pull out pictures of me playing with my grandson, hugging Bentley and my visits with missionaries in Lebanon and Egypt Clive draws us closer into faith full arms:

"...if our depravity were total we should not know ourselves to be depraved,  and partly because experience shows us much goodness in human nature. Nor am I recommending universal gloom. The emotion of shame has been valued not as an emotion but because of the insight to which it leads."

nadir-ing + expirate-ing + wickedness  ÷  shame × insight = grace (to the power of One)

Put that in your pipe and smoke it. He did. 

(b)