The Chaplain Chatters

“To despair over one’s sin indicates that sin has become or wants to be internally consistent. It wants nothing to do with the good, does not want to be so weak as to listen occasionally to other talk. No, it insists on listening only to itself, on having dealings only with itself; it closes itself up within itself, indeed, locks itself inside one more inclosure, and protects itself against every attack or pursuit by the good by despairing over sin.” —The Sickness Unto Death

So we must prune the rank and sordid overgrowth of sin by nourishing the lilies of the valley even in the shadow of death.