Blog » “Families Produce 'Chests' "

Wednesday, June 5, 2013 Jeff Lampl

In his book, The Abolition of Man, C.S. Lewis writes that modern society is growing “men without chests”.  

By this he means that we are creating people who value facts, intellect, learning, education and practical outcomes on the one hand and we are catering to all the different kinds of appetites, wants and desires and base instincts of people on the other.  

The head on the one side and the stomach on the other. But can life work this way? Can the world work expecting the head to rule the stomach, expecting reason and education to reign over my base desires? 

Lewis then says that the head rules the stomach through the Chest. The chest is where values are grown; loyalty, character, patience, kindness, endurance, faith, hope, humility, sacrifice, perseverance. It is only the strength of the chest that can reign in or redirect the stomach. These things are not learned in school, nor are they learned by “filling our stomachs”. They are learned in loving, interactive, committed, messy relationships, where we have to learn to get along, to find out the world isn’t all about me, to transcend our appetites, to remain committed when we don’t want, to persevere when we want to quit, to believe when it’s easier to give up. It is where we learn to serve, not use others. It is where we learn to believe in something bigger than myself.  

That happens in families. It is in my family that I learned that there are values and those values have shaped me. They still shape me. I have a “chest” because my parents gave me one.  

It is in family, not from a pastor, not from some great teaching guru, not from a self help book,  that I learned, at least to some modest degree,  all the following things. 

       “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” 
                                          1 Corinthians 13:7 (ESV) 

“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but  rejoices with the truth."    1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (ESV)