Letter 16

This letter refers to the patient's mother who does not realize her sin in her excessiveness. People portray gluttony as a want for too much in quantities. However, here it is showed that it is easy to make one obsess over eating small portions for example that your standards become ridiculous. It is the task of making one so involved in their self that they do not realize the excessiveness of their wants and actions. Gluttony does not just refer to eating. It refers to the wants and needs in an everyday life. It refers to an expectation. I feel after I have read this that it makes more sense. The devil tries to trick one by making them indulge in something that makes themselves feel as if they are doing right. However, in turn they are being selfish and unreasonable. This in turn becomes the same as if you were to have an excessive amount of anything. Excessiveness is more seen in the way of ones wants and expectations, yet very overlooked. I found this letter extremely interesting because it opened my eyes to think in a different way about a specific subject.

Letter 15

This letter was quite confusing to me. I thought I was beginning to understand how to understand the writing. This letter talks about how he wants his "patient" to be living in the Future. This is because to him the Present requires him to be thinking about what is going on at that moment and be in touch with reality. This would cause him to pray more and be aware of trials and turn to God. I believe that is what it was saying. However, I was slightly confused. It then talked about how the Past can occasionally be good for the devil because people dwell on it. However, ultimately it may do the same as the present. Both Present and Past can relate to eternity which is what God wants people to focus on. The devil would like us to live in the Future. This makes us not realize what is going on in front of us. It makes us miss opportunities and focus on false hopes. This ultimately leads to disappointment which can make one angry with God. I find this interesting because I think as a society much of the time we take things for granted and just push them aside to look for something better and bigger. When things aren't large and exciting they are overlooked. For example in this society materialism is a large part of our culture. A small act of kindness is overlooked because it did not mean anything to some one. A promise is not real without a large diamond. We take much for granted and I think that may be what is being said here.

Letter 8

The chapter I chose to write on was chapter 8. I found it very interesting how he describes how God's relationship with his followers is very different from the devil's. I really liked how he said that the devil just wants absorbs you and then leave you. He has no concern for you or for taking care of you. This is quite contrary to what God does. On page 39 it says, "We want cattle who can finally become food; He wants servants who can finally become sons." I thought that this explained it very well. God wants us to come and he will always be there for us. He will not just get us to follow him and then leave us. He will stay with us through everything because his goal is not just to have "won" us to his side of the war but to take care of us. The devil just wants to do anything to take us away from God. He knows that we go in cycles as he calls them. He takes advantage of us when we are weak. However, he knows that once people start to follow him and realize there is no gain in this they will turn back for something else. This is in our nature he says. I think it is very interesting how Lewis makes these comparisons. I felt like this letter was the most comprehend able so far. I really could relate to the different ways of describing the relationships.