“Then Peter, leading Caspian, forced his way through the crowd of animals.

‘This is Caspian, Sir,’ he said. And Caspian knelt and kissed the Lion’s paw. ‘Welcome, Prince,’ said Aslan. ‘Do you feel yourself sufficient to take up the Kingship of Narnia?’

‘I—I don’t think I do, Sir,” said Caspian. “I’m only a kid.’

‘Good,’ said Aslan. ‘If you had felt yourself sufficient, it would have been a proof that you were not. Therefore, under us and under the High King, you shall be King of Narnia, Lord of Cair Paravel, and Emperor of the Lone Islands. You and your heirs while your race lasts'” (C. S. Lewis, Prince Caspian).

That’s the rub.

If you think you’ve got what it takes, you probably don’t. It’s only those of us who know we will fail on our own, who desperately need God, who truly succeed.

Or as Paul says, it’s the weak ones who will shame the strong. Those who boast in their weakness will find that the joy of the Lord will be their strength.

It’s not about lording it over others, but being a servant of all. It’s not about self-sufficiency, but confessing complete and total dependence on God and His grace.

Just you think about that for a bit on this Wednesday evening in June.

I went to my favorite place– downtown Franklin. But I decided to vary my routine a bit.

I didn’t go to McCreary’s this time. I instead chose to dine at Gray’s on Main. I had some chicken and waffles, which I found out was very highly recommended from the comments I read on foursquare.

I saw a movie this time– Captain America: The Winter Soldier (or as I like to call it, Captain ‘Murica 2.

It was everything I expected (in a good way). It even had Robert Redford, looking a bit older but still the same great actor.

When I go back, I might try Franklin Mercantile Deli. I haven’t been there in a while and I think it may be calling my name. Sometimes it’s good to stick with what’s tried and true and sometimes you need to branch out and try new things. In other words, don’t wear out your welcome.

Still, I have to confess that I am still way more blessed than I deserve. Life is still good, God is still great, and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

C. S. Lewis wrote a short book about coming to grips with the death of his wife, Joy, from cancer. It really is an amazing, heart- wrenching read that is at times brutally honest and still beautifully written. Here’s an excerpt:

“Why has no one told me these things? How easily I might have misjudged another man in the same situation? I might have said, ‘He’s got over it. He’s forgotten his wife,’ when the truth was, ‘He remembers her better because he has partly got over it.’

Such was the fact. And I believe I can make sense out of it. You can’t see anything properly while your eyes are blurred with tears. You can’t, in most things, get what you want if you want it too desperately: anyway, you can’t get the best out of it. ‘Now! Let’s have a real good talk’ reduces everyone to silence. ‘I must get a good sleep tonight’ ushers in hours of wakefulness. Delicious drinks are wasted on a really ravenous thirst. Is it similarly the very intensity of the longing that draws the iron curtain, that makes us feel we are staring into a vacuum when we think about our dead? ‘Them as asks’ (at any rate ‘as asks too importunately’) don’t get. Perhaps can’t.

And so, perhaps, with God. I have gradually been coming to feel that the door is no longer shut and bolted. Was it my own frantic need that slammed it in my face? The time when there is nothing at all in your soul except a cry for help may be just the time when God can’t give it: you are like the drowning man who can’t be helped because he clutches and grabs. Perhaps your own reiterated cries deafen you to the voice you hoped to hear.”