C. S. Lewis: It is not so much of our time and so much of our attention that God demands; it is not even all our time and all our attention; it is our selves. For each of us the Baptist’s words are true: “He must increase and I decrease.” He will be infinitely merciful to our repeated failures; I know no promise that he will accept a deliberate compromise. For He has, in the last resort, nothing out of our territory; but we must be in the Resistance, to give us but Himself; and He can give only in so far as our self-affirming will retires and makes room for Him in our souls. Let us make up our minds to it; there will nothing “of our own” left over to live on; no “ordinary” life. I do not mean that each of us will necessarily be called to be a martyr or even an ascetic. For some (nobody knows which) the Christian life will include much leisure, many occupations we naturally like. But these will be received from God’s hands. In a perfect Christian they would be as much part of his ”religion”, his “service”, as his hardest duties, and his feasts would be as Christian as his fasts. What cannot be admitted—what must exist only as an undefeated but daily resisted enemy—is the idea of something that is “our own”, some area in which we are to be “out of school”, on which God has no claim.
For he claims all, because He is love, and must bless. He cannot bless us unless he has us. When we try to keep within us an area that is our own, we try to keep an area of death. Therefore, in love, He claims all. There’s no bargaining with Him.
—from his sermon “A Slip of the Tongue”
What a surprisingly good book! I should not be surprised because it's a Lewis book, but still, so much insight from a short book, all of which are "just" a compilation of his articles and sermons and addresses. Thank you Lord for this book! A sure recommend!