Tag Archives: discover God series

CS Lewis

A few things from his biography:

1) His conversion was a result of

  • observing how the intellects he admired – friends such as Charles Williams, Tolkien- could believe so devotedly in a “myth” called christianity
  • an encounter with God on a bus ride to the zoo

What’s interesting is the responsibility he took on after that, to be a christian apologist (and we can see that in his writings).

Can’t elude the idea of him equalling a ‘modern day’ apostle Paul. (Atheist->Met God on bus ride-> Evangelist through writing)

2) This fella really went through so much in life -lost so many loved ones- that at the end of his life, though he couldn’t give up his faith, could only conceive of God as a deity who deliberately set up problems for humans to overcome.

“my idea of God has to be shattered time after time. He shatters it Himself… Could we not say that this shattering is one of the marks of His presence?”

Makes me wonder if, my faith does make it till the end, what will it look like, and what will my perception of God be?

3) He couldn’t give up his faith at 60 because he had found his entire career on the faith he had acquired in the 1930s (when he was 30ish), and it was a faith nurtured for three decades.

By then it was a need to believe.

I choose to say that this “need” to believe was an intellectual decision. Probably not purely so, but intellect intermingled so closely with his emotional beliefs that Lewis never gave up on God.

So if you ask me, what good is it to “bring up a child (not just in age but in spiritual maturity) in the way he should go”, i propose Lewis’ life tale demonstrates the fruit of the Proverb: “for when he is old, he will not depart from it”.

My concern

Hi Sir,

You really made it tough for me.

How is it that man’s words can make such a deep impact on my life;

How is it that a simple compliment like, ‘you’ve done well today’ lingers, giving me the extra boost to surpass myself, and a simple comment like, ‘i don’t think i like the way you’re doing this’ sticks, tearing apart my thoughts by bugging me with the question, “what have i done wrong?”.

-Me

Dear child,

 Indeed it is that way, that Death and Life are in the power of the tongue.

But i did not mean for it to be so, my dear.

When i made you, i gave you a power that resides in your mouth, a power that allows you to release life and death into another person’s life. How can i be fair to have given you the power of words, yet withhold from you the power of choosing what to say?

I can’t take control of any part of you which you don’t want me to.

**

Don’t worry about how you are feeling. I’ve received so many similar letters from children like you.

Here’s a thought: Now you know words can make life and death, then start chewing on the words that will surely give you life.

Don’t my words make you feel alive?

The Words that i speak through your pastor,

or the Words that i whisper to you when you come up to the altar, at your deepest most vulnerable points, seeking for me,

or Words of love that i’ve penned down for you to accompany you through eternity?

Because when i say, “No one who ever trusts me like that -heart and soul- will ever regret it” (Rom 10:11). I mean it with ALL that I AM. And i really do. I am not like man, whose words carry ironies, nor am I like those who change from day to day.

When i meet with you and speak to you, i mean every word for eternity.

So my child, till you come to be with me, for this short time that you’re away on earth,

won’t you listen to my words and let the life overcome the darkness of any other things you might hear?

-with everlasting love,

Your Dad.