far more important than being good

Lewis tells us something very profound today in A Year with C.S. Lewis.

He says that while chastity and bravery and other goodnesses in our lives are important, that there is something far more important.

It is more important that we learn that we're not perfect. That we mess up, and need help.

Now that's counter-intuitive, isn't it? Lewis (correctly) says that it's more important that we learn to mess up well and learn from it than it is to learn how to do things "right". Now why would that be true?

Well, it's because we have to learn that we need Jesus. The sinners who are most in danger of missing the whole point of life are the ones who don't realize they're sinners. The people who think they've got it all together and don't need a savior. Kind of makes sense of when Jesus said that the healthy don't need a doctor, but the sick do. He said He came to call not the self-righteous, but sinners to repentance.

This also helps us understand why God didn't take away Paul's thorn in the flesh. And He doesn't always take away yours or mine, either. We learn to depend on Him when His grace is sufficient for us.

Thank You, God, for teaching us lessons that go deeper than what we would guess on our own.