Mere Christianity cont'd

Book 3 of Mere Christianity was all about the way Christians should behave. I absolutely loved this book. Lewis spelled out the principles of Christianity so simply and beautifully that everyone could understand no matter their religion.

Lewis' chapter on forgiveness hit me kinda hard . . . probably because it's been a recent struggle of mine. Not only forgiving those who have hurt me, but forgiving myself for the mistakes I've made that put me in rough situations. Lewis mentions that most people think forgiveness is a "lovely" idea, until they are actually faced with the dilemma of forgiving someone. I have found this to be true. I've never understood where the difficulty in forgiving someone came from, then again I'd never had to truly forgive someone before. Once faced with the duty of forgiving I realized that forgiveness does not happen in a single moment. You don't just wake up one morning having forgiven someone who wronged you.

Lewis mentioned that the way you forgive someone is by learning to love them the same way you love yourself. You may not necessarily always like yourself or think fondly about who you are, but you always love yourself. Simply stated loving yourself means wishing good upon yourself. And thus loving those who have hurt us simply means hoping good things happen to them.

This shook my world. I realized that I could hope good things came to the people who had hurt me. I prayed that they would be happy in their new path, despite the harm they had done to me. And as I did this I learned that when you want others to be happy you come to love them, and even like them sometimes. It's hard to feel hatred towards people if you try to wish them luck at every turn.

I believe a harder part of forgiving someone is the forgetting part. I hold on to things . . . I don't easily forget. I might not think about them often, but they are always in my mind. Personally I think that there comes a moment when the wrongs people have done to us simply don't matter anymore. Truth is, the other person probably doesn't even realize the wrong they've done. By holding on to the hurt we allow it to continually effect our souls.  We just need to turn to God and ask Him to take it from us. Christ already suffered for our pain, now we just have to allow that atonement to work. I'm just grateful to Lewis, that he was able to help me learn to turn to the Lord and let go of the hurt that I had been so strongly holding on to.

Mere Christianity Books 1 and 2

Remember when you learned about tender mercies back in primary? They are the small things that God has placed in our lives so that we can be blessed. Sometimes we don't recognize them until after they happen, but sometimes we're fortunate enough to notice the tender mercies as we get to experience them. For me this C.S. Lewis class has been a tender mercy in my life. I feel like I have been learning a ton about the Gospel, even though Lewis is not a Mormon writer. It's amazing the things you learn about yourself as you read into the insights of others.

Mere Christianity is an amazing book. I have yet to read something by C.S. Lewis that I haven't absolutely fallen in love with. These first two books especially felt like a collection of addresses from the General Authorities. I think I love reading them so much because they have a very similar feel to that of the prophet.  The first book of Mere Christianity explains that there is a moral standard in this world that has been given to us from a Supreme Being and we are supposed to live up to it, but we are failing miserably. It isn't until Book 2 that Lewis suggests the existence of God and Christ.

One idea that I really liked was Lewis' exclamation that now is the time to choose what side we are on. Lewis puts a strong emphasis on the now. Now is when we must decide who we are going to be, now is when we decide who we are going to follow. I really liked this idea, because I often get caught up in the future. I spend hours upon hours thinking about how great life will be later, or how I will act later. I'm going to be a better person in the future, I'll read my scriptures daily . . . starting tomorrow. Life is busy and too often I get caught up in what I should be doing or what I will be doing rather than what I am doing. Lewis gave a strong reminder that life is to be lived now. The choices we make in the now are the choices that will be followed in the future. And the most important choice we will make is wether we should follow God or not.

The Great Divorce

Another amazing book by C.S. Lewis. Personally however I favored The Screwtape Letters. I really liked how blunt and straight forward Lewis was. I felt that in The Great Divorce there was a greater need for me to decipher Lewis’ meaning before I could comprehend the moral message trying to be made. 

My favorite thing about Lewis is that he has caused me, on more than one occasion, to do some real soul searching. It is oftentimes far to easy for me to see myself as a character in one of Lewis’ books. But it has given me a lot of insight on parts of my own life that I need to improve because of my own human weaknesses. 

One message I love that The Great Divorce tries to convey is that our life and our condition is a consequence of every choice we make. As humans we are each basically in control of our destiny. It is up to us to choose. With so much power comes great responsibility. It would be so easy to decide today to live a sinful life, allowing human pleasure and lust to take control of everything we do. But in the days, months, years, and eternities to follow we would each have to face the consequences of such a decision. In The Great Divorce God does not force men to hell. They are freely able to travel to heaven and to stay if they so choose. The pathway however isn’t always the easiest, and because of this many people would rather live in hell than be glorified with God in heaven. As the characters in the book reached heaven from hell they realized that in order to stay in heaven and become like the heavenly beings they would undergo a lot of physical pain. They could either turn around and stay the way they were, or they could push forward through the pain and become a better and more exalted person because of it. I like to apply this idea to my everyday life. I go through struggles, I have trials, I feel pain, but pain and fear can only devour and conquer me if I allow it to. If on the other hand I lean on the Lord and fight through it than my struggles will become my strengths and I will be a better person afterwards.

Another thought I had while reading this book was the idea that I shouldn’t fear the future. This book was a constant reminder that God has a plan for me, through which I can be eternally happy if I choose to be. At this point in my life, this message was a vital reminder to me that I can’t give up and stop living life. I have no reason to fear what my future holds, because my destiny rests in the hands of the only person I can ever completely trust, and that is my Heavenly Father. That is an amazing thing, and it helps me to face each day with joy and happiness. 

The Screwtape Letters

Can I just say I thought I was pretty witty with the title of this blog? It came to me in a burst of inspiration as I sat in my Honrs 303 Literature class on Tuesday. So as a part of my class I will be writing on this blog once a week in order to record my thoughts and musings as we read through a majority of the works by C.S. Lewis. For me this class is an exciting adventure because I haven't had very much exposure to C.S. Lewis. I've seen the movies, but I have never actually read any of his written works.

This week we were responsible for reading The Screwtape Letters. First off, can I just say that C.S. Lewis is an amazing writer. Even though there have been huge amounts of reading it has been a completely enjoyable experience. Every time I read something by C.S. Lewis I walk away a better person, more aware of God’s love for me. Even though C.S. Lewis is not a Mormon author, every time I open his books it has felt as if I’m opening an issue of the Ensign.

The Screwtape Letters are a series of letter (shocker!) written from the perspective of an older devil to his young nephew and apprentice. It is a satirical work but has many important values and morals that we can learn through reading it. My favorite passage was that from letter 8, which was more or less about the law of undulation. It spoke of the ups and downs that every person experiences in life, that of peaks and troughs. While the novel was generally talking about spiritual ups and downs, because of recent personal experiences I interpreted it to mean the ups and downs of a persons emotional well-being. This is one of my favorite things about the written word, meanings and truths found in books change based on the audience. Anyways, I loved this part of the book because it reminded me that everyone goes through pain and hardships, but it’s that we choose to continue to put our faith in God and move on with life that really matters. 

One other thing I really found inspiring was our discussion on love. It’s easy as a college student to feel lonely and unlovable. C.S. Lewis gives us a strong reminder that God truly loves each and everyone of us. We are each replica’s of God and He has chosen to inhabit the world with us. Another thing I enjoyed was the idea that God has created a world where we are all united under Christ, but each one of us is still a unique son or daughter of a Heavenly Father. Personally this stood out to me because in the past couple of weeks I feel like I have forgotten who I am as an individual and who I am working on becoming. Sometimes we (as human beings) get so caught up in being with other people and relying on someone else that we lose our own personal identity. I was glad for the reminder that God wants me to be a distinct person, separate but still united with others. 

For some reason I feel the need to bear my testimony. I know that God is on my side of this battle against the devil. Heavenly Father wants me to succeed, and I know that as I strive to become more Christlike and develop my discipleship more fully that Heavenly Father will bless me far beyond my ability to comprehend. I'm so grateful for the opportunity I have to attend BYU because it allows me to aline every facet of my life with the Gospel, including my academic studies. And for me, that truly is a blessing.