Posted by : Deanna
Grrrrr…..This is a lot harder than I thought it would be. I could claim that I was busy all last week, (which is true by the way.) but I really was just being a flake. I’m sorry.
Alrighty then. This is an excerpt from C.S Lewis’ book Mere Christianity. I have yet to read the whole thing, but I love what I have read. He has such a way of putting things that just really makes me think.
…Even the best Christian that ever lived is not acting on his own steam- he is only nourishing or protecting a life he could never have acquired by his own efforts. And that has practical consequences. As long as the natural life is in your body, it will do a lot towards repairing that body. Cut it, and up to a point it will heal, as a dead body would not. A live body is not one that never gets hurt, but one that can to some extent repair itself. In the same way, a Christian is not a man who never goes wrong, but a man who is enabled to repent and pick himself up and begin over again after each stumble- because the Christ-life is inside him, repairing him all the time, enabling him to repeat (in some degree) the kind of voluntary death which Christ himself carried out.
That is why the Christian is in a different position from other people who are trying to be good. They hope, by being good, to please God if there is one; or -if they think there is not- at least they hope to deserve approval from good men. But the Christian thinks any good he does comes from the Christ-life inside him. He does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because he loves us; just as the roof of a greenhouse does not attract the sun because it is bright, but becomes bright because the sun shines on it.
I love reading deep thoughtful stuff that he writes. I recently read “A Grief Observed”, and it really was some food for thought. I haven’t quite processed it all, and most likely I’ll read it again today or tomorrow. It was very thought provoking to read through someone else’s deep sorrow like that. I wish I could have read it when my little sister Sarah was stillborn. I think it would have helped. Maybe next week I’ll post an excerpt from that.
Thanks for sharing that GREAT quote! I would like to read more C.S. Lewis, and this quote reminded me to remember to do that sometime soon.
C.S. Lewis summed up the death of a loved one so accurately, whether it is your sibiling, spouse, best friend or parent:
No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear. I am not afraid, but the sensation is like being afraid. The same fluttering in the stomach, the same restlessness, the yawning. I keep on swallowing.
At other times, it feels like being mildly drunk, or concussed. There is sort of an invisible blanket between the world and me. I find it hard to take in what anyone says. Or perhaps, hard to want to take it in. Yet I want others to be about me. I dread the moments when the house is empty. If only they would talk to one another and not to me.
There are moments, most unexpectedly, when something inside of me tries to assure me that I don’t really mind so much, not so very much, after all. Love is not the whole of a man’s life. I was happy before I ever met H. I’ve plenty of what are called ‘resources.’ People get over these things. Come, I shan’t do so badly. One is ashamed to listen to this voice but it seems for a little to be making out a good case. Then comes a sudden jab of red-hot memory and all this ‘commonsense’ vanishes like an ant in the mouth of a furnace.
I haven’t read any of C.S. Lewis yet (not even narnia), but I really would like to soon. And from this little exerpt you gave us, I am thinking that I would enjoy his books!!!
Ahh Lewis is indeed wonderful! I wish I had read Mere Christianity when I was younger, it would have helped me on my way, better than the other Christian books I was reading, I think. I also recommend ‘The Great Divorce’ – it’s about heaven and hell. It’s a pretty wild story and hard to get your mind around at first, but really good. Actually all of his books are excellent. He writes excellent poetry too.
(PS – loving Tuesday’s poetry/prose posts!)
C.S. Lewis has such a way of communicating truth. Great passage. Thanks for sharing!
~Luke
Deanna,
Thank you for sharing…this stirs a wanting to read more of C.S. Lewis. I read “A Grief Observed” after I miscarried our first child, and can see how you could wish you’d read it when Sarah was born. It can still be helpful, even now. We need to put words to the things we experience when we walk into grief, things we can never be prepared for. I’m currently grieving the death of my 2 dearest friends last December, and have found “I Will Carry You -The Sacred Dance of Grief and Joy” by Angie Smith to be as needed for me now as “A Grief Observed” was 15 years ago.
God bless you and your precious family.