Book #26 Surprised By Joy by C.S. Lewis

Y’all, I am WORN OUT! I feel like I have fought with C.S. Lewis for the last week. This must be similar to how Jacob felt after he had wrestled with an angel all night. Surprised By Joy is Lewis’ account of his early life, and it is one of his most well-known classics. In it, he details his upbringing in Belfast, Ireland, where he is exposed to and believes in the Christian life. He recounts his school life, where he is moved around from school to school in order to further his classical education. Philosophy is HUGE in a classical education such as his, and Lewis eventually loses his faith in God, and depends more and more on philosophy. He is extremely brilliant and incredibly well-read, which leads to his wrestling with many differing brands of philosophy in an attempt to explain life. However, as an Atheist, there are still unanswered questions. Even the greatest philosophers cannot satisfy his brilliant thoughts about creation, Heaven, Hell, and our place in the universe. It is at Oxford University that Lewis comes full circle in his walk with God. Finding that no branch of philosophy made sense in the end, he returned to the belief that there is in fact a god, and that He is the One True God. It would still take a little while to accept that Jesus is the Son of God, and as such is our Redeemer and Deliverer, but that would eventually come.

I loved how Lewis explained the moment it all became clear again to him. “As the dry bones shook and came together in that dreadful valley of Ezekiel’s, so now a philosophy theorem, cerebrally entertained, began to stir and heave and throw off its gravecloths, and stood up and became a living presence. I was allowed to be a philosopher no longer… He (God) would not argue about it. He only said, “I am the Lord”; “I am that I am”; “I am.” Amen and amen to that!

CS Lewis is such a deep thinker that his writings can be hard to follow at times. The ideas behind the many flavors of philosophy that he pondered was especially confusing. However, I was so encouraged that God is big enough to handle the even most complex wonderings and still be the Great I AM. Though He owes us no justification to His own existence, He does exist in, and in fact is Lord over, both rational thought and our spirit-beings. Praise His great Name!