take from me all my trumpery

From all my lame defeats and oh! much more

From all the victories that I seemed to score;

From cleverness shot forth on Thy behalf

At which, while angels weep, the audience laugh; 

From all my proofs of Thy divinity,

Thou, who wouldst give no sign, deliver me.

Thoughts are but coins. Let me not trust, instead

Of Thee, their thin-worn image of Thy head. 

From all my thoughts, even from my thoughts of Thee, 

O thou fair Silence, fall, and set me free.

Lord of the narrow gate and the needle's eye, 

Take from me all my trumpery lest I die. 

-C.S. Lewis, "The Apologist's Evening Prayer"

What a prayer that is. 

I'm human. I'm messed up. I'm prideful -- I have to remind myself that the things I can do, I can do because of God. My thoughts are corrupted, even some of my thoughts of God. 

So, God, give me peace. Give me silence, so I can be set free from my own wacked thoughts. I don't want any of the extra stuff, any of the trumpery. 

Take from me all my trumpery lest I die.

security cravers // worldview

When Socrates said, "The unexamined life is not worth living," he was surely pointing to what say social sciences would say when they talk about every human being needs a sense of security and a sense of meaning and belonging. We need to make sense of our world. We need to find security in life. And the deepest answers -- the deepest philosophies of life -- the deepest worldviews are actually grounded in faith and in religion. Science does not answer many of those deep questions, and it's only faith and worldviews which do.

-Os Guinness [emphasis added]

Just as men crave respect and women want to be loved, every human being desperately desires to feel secure. They need a place to belong, they need to know the meaning of their own existence, they need answers -- they want to know that they do, in fact, belong in the first place.

So, throughout our lives, we seek to quench that desire for knowledge and a sense of belonging. We try to find that security in all sorts of worldly things -- wealth, a relationship, popularity, a career. But it's only through God that we can find true security, and know the true reason why we're here, and begin to understand the answers and meaning to all the big "life questions." Through Christ, we know where we belong.