C.S. Lewis Riding Shotgun
So I'm heading home from running errands tonight (five items at three different stores but all in one trip - what with gas at $3/gallon, don't ya know), and I am five minutes from home. Not enough time to fit in a podcast, so I spin the ol' iPod to Audiobooks and pick up where I left off on Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis, and what I hear in those last few minutes as I'm pulling into the neighborhood, and then into the garage, just grabs me and won't let go. So naturally, I wish to share it with you.
Again, from Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis, Book Three, "Beyond Personality", Chapter 10, "Nice People or New Men", last paragraph:
"If what you want is an argument against Christianity (and I well remember how eagerly I looked for such an argument when I began to be afraid it was true) you can easily find some stupid and unsatisfactory Christian and say, "So there's your boasted new man! Give me the old kind." But if once you have begun to see that Christianity is on other grounds probable, you will know in your heart that this is only evading the issue. What can you ever really know of other people's souls - of their temptations, their opportunities, their struggles? One soul in the whole creation you do know: and it is the only one whose fate is placed in your hands. If there is a God, you are, in a sense, alone with Him. You cannot put him off with speculations about your next door neighbors or memories of what you have read in books. What will all that chatter and hearsay count (will you even be able to remember it?) when the anaesthetic fog which we call "nature" or "the real world" fades away and the Presence in which you have always stood becomes palpable, immediate, and unavoidable?"
Granted, I have left out the first eight pages of this chapter, but had I included them, not only would I be dealing with some major Carpal Tunnel issues right now, but worse, I would have lost you long before I got to the good part. The gist of the chapter, again, titled "Nice People or New Men" was to address the question we often hear, as to why, if Christians are supposed to be "new creatures", are not all Christians nicer than all non-Christians? He goes into a discussion of the reasonable and unreasonable aspects of that argument, and if you are curious, I urge you to buy the book or pull it off your shelf and give it a read, but it is not the point of this blog entry.
What I also left out was the first sentence of the last paragraph, only because it cuts into context and begs for an explanation of all that goes before. Lewis begins his concluding paragraph with the following: "But perhaps we have already spent too long on this question." So Lewis begins his conclusion by asserting that all that has gone before is not the key question anyway. Never mind how other people behave, what has that to do with you? The sentence that really made me sit up and take notice (not that I was slouching in the drivers seat), is this: "One soul in the whole creation you do know: and it is the only one whose fate is placed in your hands."
This affected me on several levels. First of all, as to my own soul. Though I grew up in the church, and accepted Christ at an early age, and have had hills and valleys and triumphs and struggles on my Christian walk from then until now, my attention is often diverted to how other people behave, whether Christian or not, and to other things that draw me into the "anaesthetic fog" of "the real world", as Lewis puts it. Yet it is my own soul whose fate is placed in my hands, standing alone before God. A sobering thought, one that will surely come to mind the next time I catch myself pointing my finger at somebody else.
On another level, I often, regrettably, find myself fitting the description of that "stupid and unsatisfactory Christian" as Lewis puts it, that would cause another to question the reality of the Christian faith. But no, I may not be going where you think I am going. Yes, in one sense, I could say it takes the pressure off, but I am not taking Lewis' comments as an excuse for bad behavior. I don't think he means to say that I as a believer can do whatever I want, because what I do has nothing to do with another person's salvation. Frankly, I don't think he was even talking to me. Clearly his intended audience in this chapter (indeed in this whole book) is not the believer, but rather the inquiring skeptic. (As a total aside, one such inquiring skeptic, Chuck Colson, cites this book as instrumental in his conversion, and I'm sure there are others, including myself, but I'm no Chuck Colson - he blogs everyday whether he feels like it or not).
Rather, it adds a new dimension and urgency to the gospel message. Yes, each person is responsible for his own soul, and yes, I see a lot of souls around me, which are being neglected by those to whom their fate is entrusted. So shouldn't we be pointing them to God, in whose Presence they stand even now, rather than diverting their attention with our own moral failures?
Again, from Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis, Book Three, "Beyond Personality", Chapter 10, "Nice People or New Men", last paragraph:
"If what you want is an argument against Christianity (and I well remember how eagerly I looked for such an argument when I began to be afraid it was true) you can easily find some stupid and unsatisfactory Christian and say, "So there's your boasted new man! Give me the old kind." But if once you have begun to see that Christianity is on other grounds probable, you will know in your heart that this is only evading the issue. What can you ever really know of other people's souls - of their temptations, their opportunities, their struggles? One soul in the whole creation you do know: and it is the only one whose fate is placed in your hands. If there is a God, you are, in a sense, alone with Him. You cannot put him off with speculations about your next door neighbors or memories of what you have read in books. What will all that chatter and hearsay count (will you even be able to remember it?) when the anaesthetic fog which we call "nature" or "the real world" fades away and the Presence in which you have always stood becomes palpable, immediate, and unavoidable?"
Granted, I have left out the first eight pages of this chapter, but had I included them, not only would I be dealing with some major Carpal Tunnel issues right now, but worse, I would have lost you long before I got to the good part. The gist of the chapter, again, titled "Nice People or New Men" was to address the question we often hear, as to why, if Christians are supposed to be "new creatures", are not all Christians nicer than all non-Christians? He goes into a discussion of the reasonable and unreasonable aspects of that argument, and if you are curious, I urge you to buy the book or pull it off your shelf and give it a read, but it is not the point of this blog entry.
What I also left out was the first sentence of the last paragraph, only because it cuts into context and begs for an explanation of all that goes before. Lewis begins his concluding paragraph with the following: "But perhaps we have already spent too long on this question." So Lewis begins his conclusion by asserting that all that has gone before is not the key question anyway. Never mind how other people behave, what has that to do with you? The sentence that really made me sit up and take notice (not that I was slouching in the drivers seat), is this: "One soul in the whole creation you do know: and it is the only one whose fate is placed in your hands."
This affected me on several levels. First of all, as to my own soul. Though I grew up in the church, and accepted Christ at an early age, and have had hills and valleys and triumphs and struggles on my Christian walk from then until now, my attention is often diverted to how other people behave, whether Christian or not, and to other things that draw me into the "anaesthetic fog" of "the real world", as Lewis puts it. Yet it is my own soul whose fate is placed in my hands, standing alone before God. A sobering thought, one that will surely come to mind the next time I catch myself pointing my finger at somebody else.
On another level, I often, regrettably, find myself fitting the description of that "stupid and unsatisfactory Christian" as Lewis puts it, that would cause another to question the reality of the Christian faith. But no, I may not be going where you think I am going. Yes, in one sense, I could say it takes the pressure off, but I am not taking Lewis' comments as an excuse for bad behavior. I don't think he means to say that I as a believer can do whatever I want, because what I do has nothing to do with another person's salvation. Frankly, I don't think he was even talking to me. Clearly his intended audience in this chapter (indeed in this whole book) is not the believer, but rather the inquiring skeptic. (As a total aside, one such inquiring skeptic, Chuck Colson, cites this book as instrumental in his conversion, and I'm sure there are others, including myself, but I'm no Chuck Colson - he blogs everyday whether he feels like it or not).
Rather, it adds a new dimension and urgency to the gospel message. Yes, each person is responsible for his own soul, and yes, I see a lot of souls around me, which are being neglected by those to whom their fate is entrusted. So shouldn't we be pointing them to God, in whose Presence they stand even now, rather than diverting their attention with our own moral failures?
posted by wilsonte | 7:58 PM
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