Kyle Cummings - Outside Reading #1

I started reading through "Blue Like Jazz" by Donald Miller and came across an interesting passage from his life where he was describing a breakdown he was having after his girl friend broke up with him. Miller says that he is in his house cleaning a bathroom and is scrubbing the grime off of a toilet when a voice in his head tells him he is no better than the scrum he is scrubbing off of the toilet. Miller then hears another voice that says treat your neighbor as yourself, at which Don realizes that phrase has more meaning than just "treat others the way you want to be treated." Don sees that he has been ridiculing himself by saying things like he is no better than the scum on the toilet and the voice telling him to treat others the way he wants to be treated also works the other way around. Don would not go to his peers or neighbors and say that they are terrible people so he also should not do that to himself. This one small phrase is loaded with meaning and was just one example to me how I could read through scripture so many times and miss something so powerful when I'm not in he right place to hear it. This one example of small but loaded phrases got me to thinking how much I probably missed in the Chronicles of Narnia. The book is by no means a full-fledged allegory but there are definite things that Lewis meant to be allegories. I think I might have to read through it again and slowly this summer to try an unload some of the hidden meanings throughout the text.