My "UnDragoning"

I'm taking a very interesting class this year for my worship major called Ministry to Worship Arts Community. One of the books I have to read for the class is, as Mr. Puls puts it, a wonkablaster (man that guy has awesome words).

The book is called by Leanne Payne. I must say, I've never really read any Lewis before (other than Screwtape Letters) and I must say, this guy is a theological and metaphorical GENIUS!

Anyway, the story I'd like to share with you all today is taken from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader:

Eustace is a greedy boy who, caring only for 'facts,' has never been to the country of Narnia. The reality of Narnia doesn't fit his idea of 'facts.' He has overheard his cousins, the Pevenses, talking about their secret country, and thereafter loves to tease and bully them about their belief. He never believes that they have really been there. But one day, along with is cousins, he is suddenly 'pulled' into Narnia though a painting of a ship under full sail. Being tossed into a Narnian sea and hauled up into a Narnian boat is about the worst thing that could happen to the selfish Eustace, for he lands right in the middle of people who have learned long ago that it isn't a joyful thing to be selfish. And their joy and unselfishness puts him out of sorts.

One day an even more dreadful thing happens to him: 'Sleeping on a dragon's hoard with greedy, dragonish thoughts in his heart, he had become a dragon himself.' A dragon is not only a selfish monster that hoards treasures, but it is also a very lonely creature. One cause of its loneliness is that it likes nothing better to eat than fresh dragon as well as other animals and human beings. Eustace begins to experience how lonely it is to be a monster. He begins to realize what kind of person he has been. And as the full realization of this settles upon him, the dragon who is Eustace lifts up his awful dragon head and begins to weep.

Through his tears he sees a huge and awesome Lion come toward him and beckon him to follow. So great is Eustace's loneliness by this time that he will do anything that Great Beast asks. The Lion leads him to a huge, round well, and there he directs Eustace to undress. Eustace has on no clothes but he then remembers that dragons are rather like snakes, and he thinks perhaps he can shed his awful dragon hide. He starts scratching away at his scaly self and soon manages to step right out of his dranon suit. But just as he steps into the water, he notices he has yet a smaller dragon skin on underneath. Once again he scratches away at this hide, and stepping out of it, starts again into the water. But there again he sees he is still a dragon. He thinks to himself, 'Oh dear, how ever many skins have I got to take off?' He then scratches away for the third time and is almost desperate to find he has yet another dragon skin on. It is then that the Lion says, 'You will have to let me undress you.' Eustace is dreadfully afraid of the Lion's claws, but he is desperate by then, so he lays down his ugly dragon-self and lets the Lion undress him. The very first tear that the Lion's claws make goes so deep that Eustace thinks it has gone right through his heart and hurts worse than anything he has ever felt.

An then Aslan catches hold of him with his great, clawed paws and throws him into the crystal-clear pool. And, smarting terribly at first, Eustace the dragon sinks deep into the delicious waters until, surfacing, he finds himself turned back into a boy.

In case you haven't figured it out... Aslan the Lion is God. We are Eustace. Here's a quick comment that Payne makes about this story:

Few, if any, write better than Lewis of our need to be 'undragoned.' Like Eustace, he saw with terrible clarity that our converstion from loving self to loving God and our neighbors is a radical one indeed. Because of Lewis's profound understanding of the old, fallen self, some thought that he had studied moral or ascetic theology for years. Refusing the compliment, he replied, "They forgot that there is an equally reliable, though less creditable, way of learning how temptation works. 'My heart'-- I need no other's-- 'showeth me the wickedness of the ungodly.'"

Wow. Ask God to 'undragon' you. No matter how much it hurts God, let us love You instead of ourselves.