EP 42: Mission Driven Stories: C.S. Lewis
You probably already know all about C.S. Lewis' incredible writings like The Narnia Series and The Screwtape Letters. You may also be aware that he was once an atheist and eventually converted not only to theism but also to Christianity. What you may not know is how he got from Christianity to atheism and back to Christianity. Clearly a Mission Driven Individual, who lived The 7 Laws of Life Mission with all his heart, his incredible life story is not only inspiring but so insightful and faith-building. With children of our own to raise and duly convert to truth, light and a solid belief in God and His laws, C.S. Lewis can teach us a lot about the loss of faith and the journey back. Listener's Guide: Use the time stamps below to skip to any part of the podcast. 3:43 Lewis' early life 7:32 Lewis' 3 life changing moments with Joy 14:48 Losing his mother and practicing prayer 17:17 Lewis' boarding school experiences and loss of belief 28:17 Studying with The Great Knock 34:04 WWI and Oxford 40:09 Complete submission to God Quotes from this episode: "Instantly I was uplifted into huge regions of northern sky, I desired with almost sickening intensity something never to be described and then...found myself at the very same moment already falling out of the desire and wishing I were back in it. I call it Joy..." ~C.S. Lewis "Spiritually speaking, the deadly thing was that school life was a life almost wholly dominated by the social struggle." ~C.S. Lewis "I maintained that God did not exist. I was also very angry with God for not existing. I was equally angry with Him for creating a world." ~C.S. Lewis "As Johnson points out, where courage is not, no other virtue can survive except by accident." ~ C.S. Lewis "I sometimes wonder whether all pleasures not substitutes for Joy." ~C.S. Lewis "A young man who wishes to remain an Atheist cannot be too careful of his reading...Really,, a young Atheist cannot guard his faith too carefully. Dangers lie in wait for him on every side." ~C.S. Lewis "Indeed, I must have been as blind as a bat not to have seen, long before, the ludicrous contradiction between my theory of life and my actual experiences as a reader." ~C.S. Lewis "For the first time I examined myself with a seriously practical purpose. And there I found what appalled me; a zoo of lusts, a bedlam of ambitions, nursery of fears, a harem of fondled hatreds. My name was Legion." ~C.S. Lewis "In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt down and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England." ~C.S. Lewis Book from this episode: Links from this episode: Find the Feedspot Top 40 list mentioned in the podcast HERE Listen to "The Types of People in Hell" podcast taken from The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis HERE
