Man - Doesn't Need Improvement - C S Lewis

Fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement: he is a rebel who must lay down his arms.


Laying down your arms, surrendering, saying you are sorry, realising that you have been on the wrong track and getting ready to start life over again from the ground floor -- that is the only way out of our 'hole.'


This process of surrender -- this movement full speed astern --is what Christians call repentance.


Remember, this repentance, this willing submission to humiliation and a kind of death, is not something God demands of you before He will take you back and which He could get you out of if He chose: it is simply a description of what going back to Him is like.


If you ask God to take you back without it you are really asking Him to let you go back without going back. It cannot happen.

 -- From Mere Christianity by C S Lewis