Near the very end of his marvelous book, MERE CHRISTIANITY, C.S. Lewis gives an exhortation to believe in Christ that is a slap down of narcissism. Any age, but perhaps most particularly, our age, would be wise to think hard about his words.
“Until you have given up your self to Him you will not have a real self. Sameness is to be found most among the most ‘natural’ men, not among those who surrender to Christ. How monotonously alike all the great tyrants and conquerors have been: how gloriously different are the saints. . . . Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.”
“Oh God, change me, change us. Help us to die to ourselves and live to you. Help me lead our church and the men I mentor around the country in this direction.”