AT HOME AND AWAY

“We must realize the yawning pitfall in that very characteristic of home life which is so often glibly paraded as its principle attraction: “It is there that we appear as we really are: it is there that we can fling aside the disguises and be ourselves.” … It will never be lawful simply to “be ourselves” until “ourselves” have become [children] of God … This does not mean, of course, that there is no difference between home life and general society. It does mean that home life has its own rule of courtesy… a code more intimate, more subtle, more sensitive, and, therefore, in some ways more difficult, than that of the outer world,” writes C.S. Lewis, from his essay “The Sermon and the Lunch (1945).”

Not only is this very true, but I think learning to live a certain way in the home is really and only who “we are.” We might be a little more relaxed in the home environment, but who and how we are at home is for sure who we are internally. On the outside, in social and cultural display, we can be about anything to anybody…maybe several different ways several different times a day. At home, this is not possible… and thus “in some ways more difficult than that of the outer world.” In the home there is no faking it…just making it. I think this has proven very true during the stay-at-home pandemic era of the Corona Virus. What we are at home is likely what we really are. If we are not at home…at home…what are we saying?

“Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” Jesus