The First Hundred

...in the light of eternity. "Life's a tough proposition, and the first hundred years are the hardest." Wilson Mizner

Saturday, April 15, 2006

Tea Time

I'm having a cup of tea. Raspberry Zinger. I thought it might be a very "English" sort of thing to do, in honor of my just having finished reading "Mere Christianity" by C.S. Lewis.

I don't agree with all he has to say, or maybe it's just that I don't understand some of the things he says well enough to know whether or not I agree....

Anyway....

The following quote made an immense impression on me. See what it does for you.

"If what you want is an argument against Christianity (and I well remember how eagerly I looked for such arguments when I began to be afraid it was true) you can easily find some stupid and unsatisfactory Christian and say, "So there's your boasted new man! Give me the old kind." But if once you have begun to see that Christianity is on other grounds probable, you will know in your heart that this is only evading the issue. What can you ever really know of other people's souls - of their temptations, their opportunities, their struggles? One soul in the whole creation you do know: and it is the only one whose fate is placed in your hands. If there is a God, you are, in a sense, alone with Him. You cannot put Him off with speculations about your next door neighbours or memories of what you have read in books. What will all that chatter and hearsay count (will you even be able to remember it?) when the anaesthetic fog which we call "nature" or "the real world" fades away and the Presence in which you have always stood becomes palpable, immediate, and unavoidable?"

posted by Seeker @ 3:55 PM  

12 Comments:

  • At 4/15/2006 6:29 PM, Blogger oldhall said…

    Ironically, you can'y get 'zinger' teas in the UK.

     

  • At 4/15/2006 10:44 PM, Blogger Cheryl said…

    Wow. That's a great quote. It's been many years since I read Mere Christianity. Maybe it's time to dust it off.

     

  • At 4/16/2006 3:51 PM, Blogger Jamie Dawn said…

    I really enjoy the writings of C.S. Lewis, because he was so blatantly honest. He wrote of the good and the bad, and did not try and sugar coat life as a Christian.
    He knew that we would struggle and suffer just as all people do, and he wasn't afraid to ask the hard questions. He also was not afraid to answer them as best he could, and he didn't run from the tough answers.

     

  • At 4/16/2006 9:16 PM, Blogger Jim said…

    Hi!

    You did better than I could do. That book is hard to read and so I never read it all. I like to speed read, but that one doesn't cooperate.

    Seriously, I gave a copy to my engineer son and he read the whole thing. He liked it and became a revived Christian again.

    At first I thought he had become a Christian from reading that book. Later he told me about his experience in Sunday school at age five and we decided upon the revived idea instead.

    I will catch up with your blogs, I promise. Just read a few of the recent ones for now. Five weeks is a lot.

    Josiah did two of the three things he likes. Was the other taking a nap?

    He needs the new toy I won't buy for myself. See my tomorrow's blog, you can read it now.

     

  • At 4/17/2006 6:26 AM, Blogger Seeker said…

    Actually, two out of three things we "made" him do that day were his favorites. The third thing (napping) is his least favorite thing in the world, I think.

     

  • At 4/17/2006 7:37 AM, Blogger andré said…

    I like that book so much! (as I like everything by Lewis that I've ever read). This year I'm reading a book (sort of a "devotional"), that has a short excerpt of one os his books for each day. It has pieces from Weight of Glory, Screwtape Letters, Mere Christianity, and The Problem of Pain.

     

  • At 4/17/2006 8:01 AM, Blogger John Cowart said…

    Over the years i read many of Lewis's books and found most of them too deep for me. The one's which help me most are the Narnia series he wrote for children.

    As to the section you quote I like the idea of desert island christianity, i.e. how would I live and worship if I were the only person on the island. Thinking too much about someone else's faith (or lack thereof)bogs me down; I have plenty of sins, doubts and glitches inside myself... Anyhow, I seek the Presence in the midst of my fog.

     

  • At 4/17/2006 7:01 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    i am having a hard time interpreting exactly what he is saying in that quote? i don't think i would like that book. can you paraphrase it for us, in your words?

     

  • At 4/17/2006 7:43 PM, Blogger Seeker said…

    Susie,
    I've emailed you about this.

     

  • At 4/17/2006 8:03 PM, Blogger Whistle Britches said…

    I''ve had trouble too understanding what he was talking about in his books.
    Maybe the letters were just too small or maybe I just didn't understand what he was saying.
    maybe you're having trouble understanding what I'm saying.

    My friend Ted has the Screwtape Letters read by John Cleese on CD. I tried to read that too.

     

  • At 4/18/2006 11:23 PM, Blogger Jenn said…

    Oh that is sooooo goooood!! Clive Staples "C.S." Lewis is one of my absolute favorites.

    He is saying that if you are looking for Christian falicy, you can always find Christians that are bad examples to further your point.

    If you press through that and honestly look for more, you realize the bad examples shouldn't and don't matter to you in the long run. It's your own salvation, your own walk with God that matters. Period.

    And your own walk, dear friend IS the real thing.

    Thank you for sharing!!!!!!!!!

     

  • At 4/19/2006 7:40 PM, Blogger Jenn said…

    wow, this is deep.

     

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