Dear Cornerstone Family,
Both an accomplished scholar and a fiction writer, especially of children’s literature, C.S. Lewis also found himself as a leading apologist for the Christian faith during a particular tumultuous time in Great Britain.
In the thick of WWII, Lewis was being asked by the BBC to give five live radio talks on Sunday evenings concerning Christian belief and behavior. Those five broadcasts turned into 13 broadcasts over the course of a year and were later published in a book that became the one of the greatest defenses of Christianity in the 21st century, Mere Christianity. Though it’s been nearly 70 years since it was first published, Mere Christianity continues to top the list of most influential books of Christian apologetics each year.
Part of the reason the book has endured and even grown in popularity over the decades is Lewis’ ability to both rationally defend but affectionately persuade the reader of the truth of Christianity. One walks away from Lewis’ writing with a strong sense of the believability of Christianity but also, its beauty.
At 16 years of age, I was wrestling for the first time with intellectual doubts about the faith. One of my pastors at the time recommended Mere Christianity to me. As I read it, my questions about the faith were answered. For the first time, I was persuaded of the reasonableness of Christianity. More than this, however, I saw the compelling beauty of Christianity. Lewis didn’t just help believe Christianity was true; he helped me want it to be true!
During the snow apocalypse this week, I walked through a chapter in the final section of Mere Christianity with the family about living the Christian life. At one point in the chapter, Lewis identifies what he calls “the real problem of the Christian life.” He says, “It comes at the very moment you wake up in the morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them back; in listening to that other voice, taking the other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in” (p. 154).
Such good wisdom here from Lewis. Notice, our first job in the morning is to push back against the wild animals of our desires and listen to that “other voice”—that is, the voice of God. Historically, the church has encouraged Christians toward a wake-up strategy for listening to God’s voice first thing in the morning. It goes by alternate names. We may call it morning devotion or morning prayers or quiet time, but the goal is all the same—to invite the life of God’s transforming grace into our hearts to lead our day.
If you don’t have a wake-up strategy for meeting with God first thing, Lent is a great time to start something new! It doesn’t have to be big. For years, I’ve quoted Psalm 118:24 when I first get out of bed, “This is the day that the Lord has made; I will rejoice and be glad in it.” Something about the simple truth of those words sets the tone for me. Christy often keeps a memory verse taped to her mirror in the bathroom, so that the first thing she sees and hears is from God. What’s a small thing you could do to invite the presence and power of God into your life during this season?
Your servant,
