My Friend, the Evil Red Lizard.

I just finished a book entitled The Great Divorce by the brilliant author C.S. Lewis; famous for numerous works such as The Chronicles of Narnia, The Screwtape Letters, Mere Christianity and many others.

The book chronicles the author’s dreamlike journey from the joyless “grey town” of hell (or purgatory) to the “foothills” of heaven. It’s a provocative and marvelous interpretation of [what could be] next for each of us after we “cross the great bridge” that each of us must eventually cross.

Toward the end of the book, the narrator finds himself within earshot of a dialog taking place between a “ghost” (a man who has recently died and is now in the grey town trying to figure out his final destiny) and a “good spirit” (an Angel). What was interesting was that the ghost had a little red lizard clinging to his shoulder and it was constantly whispering tormenting things in the ghosts’ ear. Without going into too much detail, the little red reptile represented earthly lust and the stronghold lust can have on those who submit to her alluring grasp. The Angel pleaded with the ghost if He could kill the lizard so that the ghost could experience true freedom and progress toward something better, yet the ghost wrestles passionately with the Angel and provides every possible excuse or justification as to why it’s really not necessary to kill the creature. The ghost has grown accustom to it after-all. The red lizard and the ghost have become co-dependent "friends" and they are now cozy with the dysfunction in their relationship. The ghost can’t imagine living without the beast at this point yet he fully understands that the lizard is hurting him and toxic to his soul. Ultimately, after much loving coercion, the ghost “sees the light” and exclaims, “I know it will kill me” and finally yields to the Angel’s prompting. Once the lizard is killed, the ghost is set free and he becomes a “new man” and journeys onward and into his new life of real freedom and joy. A fresh and clean passage from bondage into Love.

Can anyone relate? What’s the little red reptilian friend on your shoulder? We all have one (or more;) Whether it’s lust, greed, anger, jelousy, substance abuse, pride, etc.., there are likely things in our lives that are clinging on and we’ve grown so accustomed to them that we can’t imagine life without them and we can’t conceive of the freedom we could truly experience should we embrace the bravery to “kill” them.  

Verses to consider: Romans 7:15-20
"I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it."

Go get it!