“Hardtack, every tempter always fails on his first try or two. Humans are fickle creatures. Should you think your failure is complete and the end of it, you have missed the more discriminate aspect of your art. Every failure experienced will have meritorious value when at your next attempt you find your patient at a […]
The following is an imagined continuation of the Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis: Wormwood spoke with authority. “Hardtack, Screwtape moved on. His promotion to Tormentor is under direct supervision by our father, Lucifer. You are now my protégé’ in the art of tempting. I promise to teach you all that Screwtape instilled in me. Tempting
Hardtack Is Initiated Read More »
Age has thrust upon me a ripening. I’ve reached a stage when stories begin with some variation of the word “ago,” as in some time ago, 30-years-ago, 20-years-ago or 10-years-ago. My odd, and maybe common, observation is all these seem like yesterday to me. The memories express a recency, a feel and touch missing during
The other day, reading John Wesley’s three rules for living, the first of which is “Do no harm,” I understood the many difficulties in achieving it. Simple on its surface, the more I thought about it, the more I realized the ways I could go wrong, not just intentionally, but unintentionally. Harm is a spectrum
