A Weekend with CS Lewis

Spring here in Idaho is like Sampson with one arm pulling in the column of the sun and another firmly fixed to the snow on the mountains.

A few notes from a grieving son, a century and ocean apart from the Oxford Professor who wrote about more than Narnia.

The Problem of Pain

Christianity is not the conclusion of a philosophical debate on the origins of the universe; It is a catastrophic historical event following on the long spiritual preparation of humanity. 

CS Lewis, The Problem of Pain

Today, many have traded religions of the divine for religions of career centered lives. I once heard John Eldrige mention our perpetual purchases are constant little cries for solace. The old me conflated dollar amounts in my bank account as signs of salvation. 

Christianity didn’t make me rich, it prepared me for catastrophe. When I gazed at Christ on the Cross over my mother’s open casket I realized my entire life I had been generously prepared for this moment. Every moment since closing the lid, the solace that rebuilt this man has come the One on that crucifix.

What Lewis got right in his Problem of Pain is that we have long tried throwing Socrates at the Sacred. Thankfully those two, while intersecting, are on different planes of existence.  

As our Earth is to all the stars, so doubtless are we men and our concerns to all creation; as all the starts are to space itself, so are all creatures, all thrones and powers and mightiest of the created gods, to the abyss of the self-existing Being, who is to us Father and Redeemer and indwelling Comforter… - CS Lewis, The Problem of Pain

A Grief Observed

I could not reproduce a single passage from this book though it may be Lewis’ shortest. For those familiar with the professor, he at first will seem like a mad man. I remember encountering this work before and wondering what had happened to CS Lewis. Now after my mother’s passing, I recognize the grief Lewis was so afraid of sharing. 

CS Lewis originally published this under a pseudonym. That he published it at all I believe is its truest statement: grief is not to be observed alone. 

Reflections on the Psalms 

Notice here the strange roads by which God leads His people. Century after century, by blows which seem to us merciless, by defeat, deportation, and massacre, it was hammered into the Jews that earthly prosperity is not in fact the certain, or even the probable, reward of seeing God… 

The lesson taught in the Book of Job was grimly illustrated in practise. Such experience would surely have destroyed a religion…

CS Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms

I have heard it said the God of the Old Testament was too hard on men. I have heard others even wonder where this same God is in the New Testament. Well, He is there, yet this time all wrath, defeat, deportation and massacres without mercy have been turned to only one, his Son. 

The Old Testament God can be seen in the Garden of Gethsemane. There He is again as Roman whips break skin. There at the crowning of thorns, He is unmistaken. One can hardly consider how many Sodom and Gomorrahs would be felt with every crucifix bearing step taken. How many of us could wish forgiveness on the wicked that beat nails into our feet and hands? This is the same God, who abstained from revenge in the name of redemption.

The beauty of Lewis' reflection on the Psalms is that it is a revelation of the God who made woman and man for Himself on earth as it is in heaven. Decades before David Foster-Wallace wrote This is Water, CS Lewis signed off:

For we are so little reconciled to time that we are even astonished at it… It is as strange as if a fish were repeatedly surprised at the wetness of water. And that would be strange indeed; unless of course the fish were destined to become, one day, a land animal. -CS Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms

Christianity isn’t about where we go when we die.

The faith in Christ is that we do not die the way the world lies.

We the living are already so near to the Kingdom of Heaven,

That even with us, CS Lewis spend his weekends.

Until next week,

-Steven

PS. I recently published a video over on my channel focusing how I journal through grieving and healing. If my writing or videos have been of service to you, please let me know. Do not grieve alone.