by A Jarman

Created on: September 27, 2008

Humbug to Humble

Scrooge, from Dickens' A Christmas Carol, is a heartless old soul. He is the epitome of selfishness, malevolence and apathy of mankind. Yet, at some point, Scrooge must have been an innocent child, full of love. This seems incredible that a guile-less infant could possibly transform into the icy Ebenezer Scrooge. The change takes place so subtly, a little at a time. It is often hard to discern these modifications in character until the individual is fully transformed. Many young people of college-age would be shocked to learn that some of them are on similar paths of selfishness to the one that Scrooge himself took. Already at this age some have the selfish, hardened traits which come from a life of taking more than giving. This way of living, and lack of loving, almost led to the eternal damnation of Ebenezer Scrooge. Fortunately for him, he was warned before it was too late.

A warning voice for us today is C.S. Lewis, who cautions that the risks of loving selflessly are much less of a gamble than not loving at all.
"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casketsafe, dark, motionless, airlessit will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside of Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from the perturbations of love is Hell." (169, emphasis added).
Many college-age youth today unknowingly allow their hearts to fall into an emotionally cold, comatose-state. Lewis implies that our hearts harden as selfishness overtakes them. As it becomes more rock-like, the heart becomes easier to withhold or snatch from the possession of others. Those of us who have this selfishness are extremely selective in choosing the recipients of our love. Resulting is the common approach to loving wherein others are required to earn it. Frequently, when we as young-people meet others, we conceal our hearts behind a seemingly natural wall of defense previously formed. We often assume the worst of these new people until they prove themselves to be worthy of our looking kindly upon them, let alone loving

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