Do apologists take their own advice?

[IsaacSheen]

I was reading the amazing, awe-inspiring advice that the staff apologists give and I couldn’t help but wonder, how easy is it to take your own advice?

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

IsaacSheen:

I was reading the amazing, awe-inspiring advice that the staff apologists give and I couldn’t help but wonder, how easy is it to take your own advice?

About as easy as it was for C. S. Lewis when he was faced with explaining the problem of pain in his book of that title, and when he considered his own inadequacies in dealing with suffering:

When Mr. Ashley Sampson suggested to me the writing of this book, I asked leave to write it anonymously, since, if I were to say what I really thought about pain, I should be forced to make statements of such apparent fortitude that they would become ridiculous if anyone knew who made them. Anonymity was rejected as inconsistent with the series; but Mr. Sampson pointed out that I could write a preface explaining that I did not live up to my own principles! This exhilarating programme I am now carrying out (C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain).

Just as a doctor can give sound nutritional advice to others even if he neglects to put it into practice in his own health regimen, apologists are not always able to live up to their own ideals although they often do try. It’s the difference between knowing what is true and putting it into practice in one’s own life. Researching the right answer is often easy enough; apologists know as well as anyone else that the practical application is what can be difficult.