I started making the faith of my parents my faith in my middle teenage years. I read from various Bibles I received for birthday and Christmas presents around the ages of 15 and 16. And before I finished high school, I had read a book, C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity which had been recommend by my pastor.
C.S. Lewis was born in Ireland in 1900. Up until his death in 1963, Lewis was a famous Christian, writer, and speaker. Mere Christianity is the culmination of a series of talks on Christian topics delivered over British radio in the 1940s. Over the next week I will be sharing short selections from this work. These words have kept me thinking and praying over the years.
I hope no reader will suppose that “mere” Christianity is here put forward as an alternative to the creeds of existing communions – as if a person could adopt it in preference to Congregationalism or Greek Orthodoxy or anything else. It is more like a hall out of which doors open into several rooms. If I can bring anyone into that hall I shall have done what I attempted. But it is in the rooms, not in the hall, that there are fires and chairs and meals. The hall is the place to wait in, a place from which to try the various doors, not a place to live in. It is true that some people may feel that they have to wait in the room for a considerable time, while others feel certain almost at once which door they must knock at. I do not know why there is a difference, but I am sure God keeps no one waiting unless God sees it is good for them to wait. When you get into your room you will find that the long wait has done you some kind of good which you would not have had otherwise. But you must regard it as waiting, not camping. You must keep on praying for light: and, of course, even in the hall you must begin trying to obey the rules which are common to the whole house. And above all you must be asking which door is the true one; not which pleases you you best by its paint and paneling. In plain language, the questions should never be: “Do I like that kind of service?” but “Are these doctrines true: Is holiness here? Does my conscience move me towards this? Is my reluctance to knock at this door due to my pride, or my more mere tastes, or my personal dislike of this particular door keeper?
When you have reached your own room, be kind to those who have chosen different doors and to those who are still in the hall. If they are wrong they need your prayers all the more; and if they are your enemies, then you are under orders to pray for them. That is one of the rules common to the whole house. ~Mere Christianity, Preface
Prayer
Thank you, God, for using the writings of C.S. Lewis to coax me into the room where I have become home in the Christian faith. And thank you for teaching me the truth about Your steadfast love in my spiritual home. Amen.
This book was one from my mom’s collection that I felt compelled to keep after she passed. Whenever I’ve read various parts of this book, I can feel my mom close to me, encouraging me to “read on”. Thank you, Steve, for bringing C.S. Lewis to me today!
Although CS Lewis as an author is better known for his fiction, those of us who are more literal minded have found this book, as well as The Screwtape Letters, to be excellent thought guides.