“If you do that again I’ll spank you.” Who hasn’t been on either side of this statement?  A couple times my son “did it again,” and then he said, “I need a spanking. I can’t seem to change direction by myself.” I’ve reflected on this truth for years, it’s a perseverant fascination.

On the flip side of self honesty is, “I couldn’t make my case ’cause I already debunked it.”  C. S. Lewis talked about the anguish of sin but then instead of going to the Lord and saying, “This is awful. I’m feeling anguished. This is what I did. I’m sorry. Help.” We often instead say, “This is what happened. I just happened to be there. It wasn’t my fault for these sixty five reasons. Okay?”

Yea, we want to SAVE ourselves, save ourselves from discomfort and humility. We go to our Lord and say, “Yes, you already paid the price so I don’t have to burn in anguish later, because I know this bad habit of mine will catch up with me.  I know you can help me change directions but I’D RATHER SAVE MYSELF FROM REPENTANCE. I’d rather be comfortable than do the hard work of improvement. It takes courage to admit, “I need a spanking to change direction.”   For more outsider art depicting the human condotion in various forms see nancymauerman.com

Anguish