The life of C.S. Lewis

Most know C.S. Lewis as the author of the children’s series “The Chronicles of Narnia.” Less known is that he was a Christian apologist who wrote many books defending the faith, becoming one of the most influential religious writers of the 20th century. Far fewer people, myself included until recently, aren’t aware he was very reluctant to convert to Christianity. When he was younger his family was a part of the Church of Ireland, but he fell away from the faith in his early teens. In his biography “Surprised by Joy” he describes his conversion back to Christianity in his early 30s, by comparing himself to the Prodigal Son. “The Prodigal Son at least walked home on his own feet. But who can duly adore that Love which will open the high gates to a prodigal who is brought in kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance of escape?” He says he just wanted to be “left alone;” he didn’t want to bother with religion. But he couldn’t deny the truth of God’s existence, and so reluctantly accepted Jesus into his heart. My first reaction was amazement at how God used such a reluctant convert to become one of the most well-known and influential defenders of the Christian faith. The passage about Lewis’ conversion came from a book I’ve been reading called “The Narnian” by Alan Jacobs. It focuses on the people, places and events in Lewis’ life that shaped his beliefs and imagination that he carefully crafted into his nonfiction and fiction books. One of the things I liked about “The Narnian” is its description of all aspects of Lewis’ life, some admirable, some not. In his own words, Lewis wrote later in life that he was an intellectual prig during his school years. He thought of himself as superior because of his intelligence and didn’t have much patience for his classmates who weren’t as gifted. He wrote that he “began to labor very hard to make myself into a fop, a cad and a snob,” and he struggled with pride for much of his life. When he was 18 he met the mother of one of his good friends and would soon start a relationship with her that continued until she died about 30 years later. She was unofficially divorced, but her husband was out of the picture. Still, in those days, that kind of thing was looked down upon. Lewis must have been aware of this because he hid the details of his relationship even from close family and friends. There are differing accounts by Lewis’ biographers of what kind of relationship this was, whether romantic or platonic, but even so it was a questionable aspect of his life. Reading about it though reminded me that he’s human; he’s flawed just like you and I, but through God’s grace he became a very influential man. I believe that God especially likes to use people with obvious weaknesses because He wants to make it easy for us to recognize His power in all of it. His power is made perfect in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). Why else did He choose to make Peter the rock of the church, even after he was the one who denied Jesus three times on the evening of his arrest? With God’s help Moses, a stutterer, confronted the Egyptian Pharaoh and led the Israelites out of slavery. When God chooses to work in the impossible it is for our benefit, to make it clear that no matter what, anything is possible with Him (Mark 10:27). And because of this I’m glad to know now the whole person of C.S. Lewis. It makes me more aware of God’s influence in each of our lives, and thankful that my failures, and others’, can’t stop Him from the good He plans for each of us. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith -- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God -- not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do (Ephesians 2: 8-10).