Redefining ourselves

As C. S. Lewis tells it,
"The State exists simply to promote and to protect the ordinary happiness of human beings in this life. A husband and wife chatting over a fire, a couple of friends having a game of darts in a pub, a man reading a book in his own room or digging in his own garden--that is what the State is there for.
And unless they are helping to increase and prolong and protect such moments, all the laws, parliaments, armies, courts, police, economics, etc., are simply a waste of time."
--Mere Christianity

I'm reading from a large ivory coloured book, Devotional Classics, an anthology of abridged works including everyone from St. Augustine to Dallas Willard. The editors want to teach one how to read divinely: thoughtfully, with room for the Spirit to remake the heart with his truth. Though I have always abhorred and turned up my nose at abridged and condensed books, an exception had to be granted this one, to see if it were worthy of group discussion and to test the editors claims of personal transformation. And what is it like, according to those living it out long before us, to be a Christian after all? What is the church here for?