Everyone is upset about misinformation, and I get that.

It’s bad to tell lies and to believe lies. We need a robust life of the mind and to encourage excellence in the intellect, what C. S. Lewis called the “organ of truth.”

But we need to keep in mind that human beings don’t make decisions based on facts alone. We really are more than brains on sticks, and when we love and believe we are operating with more than our minds.

This is why we need stories, symbols, and rituals.

Or rather, we do have stories, symbols, and rituals, and we are formed by them. So, let’s have faithful ones.

Why do we kneel or bow our heads to pray, put our hands over our hearts and stand at the national anthem, clap when we’re delighted, and hug our kids goodnight? Because we are beings of ritual. We are whole-bodied beings.

There’s a quotation attributed to C. S. Lewis that resonates with many. “You do not have a soul, you are a soul. You have a body.”

There are only two problems with this quotation: 1) Lewis didn’t say it, and 2) It’s a lie.

And we must not tell lies. We don’t have bodies. We are bodies. We are embodied spirits.

Be a Christian in more than just your mind. So kneel, and stand, and bow, and close your eyes, and hug, and light a candle, and bow, and anoint with oil, and on and on and on, world without end. Amen.

And, hey, share faithful stories. Stories address the mind, but not the mind only. They invade the imagination, which Lewis (really) called the “organ of meaning.”

Don’t believe lies? YES.

Also, don’t live and love lies.

Immerse your family in faithful stories, faithful symbols and rituals, and live like what and who you are.

You are more than a mind for processing true or false information, and what you feed your imagination has the power to sneak past your best arguments and infect with, or cure, the worst misinformation.

We should be as concerned about mis-formation as misinformation.

Which is to say that we need to think positively about formation. And for that, we need stories, symbols, and rituals.

I’m on your side,

Sam

What rituals do you practice that form you intentionally as who you are and want to be? Tell us in the comments below.

We’ve turned some of these quotes into lock screens and wallpapers for you, free to download!

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