Living the Legacy of C.S. Lewis

A Word of Grace – May 14, 2012

cslewisfoundation — Mon, 14 May 2012 17:46:44 +0000

Dear Friends:

This message will go out on Mother’s Day weekend. Whether you are a mother or daughter, father or son, cast-off and orphaned or held close in family in friendships, I hope that this message that I first sent out seven years ago will bless your day and week with the tender mercy of the Lord who loves you.

. . .
I visited a client’s office late on a hot Wednesday afternoon. I announced myself to the administrative assistant, Mignon Mosely, and sat down on a chair opposite her desk. Mignon is a lovely woman, always immaculately dressed, gracious and helpful without fail. She is shrewd in dealing with the demanding clientele of her employers to whom she is invaluable and their number one public relations asset which I hope they realize. She loves Christ and has shown me a thing or two over the years about following him.

The counter in front of her desk frequently has a brightly colored can collecting donations for the causes like children’s health or breast cancer research that are her passion. I took a look at that and then glanced at the photographs and decorations around her desk. There was a round piece of white paper with blue circular printing around the rim. accented with musical notes. It said, “I Sing Because I’m Happy.”

The song rolled up out of my heart.

Why should I feel discouraged,

Why should the shadows come,

Why should my heart be lonely,

And long for heaven and home,

When Jesus is my portion?

My constant friend is He:

His eye is on the sparrow,

And I know He watches me;

His eye is on the sparrow,

And I know He watches me.

#

I sing because I’m happy,

I sing because I’m free,

For His eye is on the sparrow,

And I know He watches me.

–Civilla Martin

“I sing because I’m happy,” I said out loud quoting the lyric of the chorus. “I sing because I’m free, for His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.”

Mignon said the last line of the chorus with me and added,”That was my mother’s favorite song.”

“I love it too,” I told her. “When I was a kid, our family watched the Billy Graham crusades on TV. Ethel Waters would always sing it and my Dad loved to hear it. He would smile and say, “Listen” when she was announced and we would sit still and hear her sing that song like she was telling a story.”

“There you go,” Mignon smiled.

I said, “You know there’s a wonderful thing in the gospels about the point of the song. It’s “Economics 101″ according to Jesus. Hold on, let me show you.” I pulled my dog-eared NIV New Testament out of the inner pocket of my coat.

Then I realized I’d spoken too soon. I didn’t remember exactly where the texts appeared. “I think what I’m looking for is in Matthew and Luke. Just go on with what you’re doing and I’ll let you know when I’ve found it.”

“OK,” Migon said.

I thumbed through and found the texts. “Here’s what I wanted. Listen closely for the math in what Jesus said about the price of sparrows.”

“First, I’ll read Matthew 10:29-30. ‘Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid, you are of more value than many sparrows.’ See, the market price of sparrows sold as pets in the marketplace was two sparrows for a penny.”

“Now listen to Luke 12:6-7: ‘Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God? Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.’”

Migon looked at me quizzically.

I explained my point to her. “In Matthew’s account, Jesus said sparrows were sold two-for-a penny. In Luke’s account, the price was the same but with a volume discount. If one bought four sparrows for two pennies an extra sparrow was thrown into the deal. The extra sparrow wasn’t even valued by its owner at a half-penny. Its price was written down and it was thrown in as a ‘loss leader’ to seal the deal the same way Wal-Mart will throw in a third pair of socks if you buy two pair.”

I went on. “Imagine the advertisement: ‘Buy four sparrows and get one free.’ A little girl pulls at the sleeve of her mom, ‘ Mom, Mom, we get a free sparrow if we buy two pair.’ ”

“‘Quiet!,’” her mom says. “‘We’d have to buy a cage too. Besides, who is going to feed and clean up after them! This is just the way they get rid of sick or hurt birds by palming them off on their customers!’”

“Migon, sometime in our lives, the value of every one of us will be written down or written off. Someone we hope will love us may end up heavily discounting us and trading us off. It’s always a hard thing to be the fifth sparrow in a four sparrow transaction.”

She nodded at this thought with a look that made me suspect that she knew the painful reality of what I was telling her.

“But Jesus is saying, ‘That’s not how your heavenly Father looks at you.’ Jesus says, ‘the Father watches every sparrow including ones that humans count as having no value. He carefully follows their flights and their falls. Not one of those tiny birds is written off or discounted in his sight.’”

“Jesus is making the point to us that the Father watches out for his children the same way. He doesn’t discount or count any one of us as worthless or trade-bait for a better deal. He loves each one of us. He numbers the hairs of our heads and writes our names in the palm of his hand because he delights in us and values each one of us even more than the sparrows. The Father doesn’t write off any one of us. He saves us and cherishes us regardless of how worthless we see ourselves or we see each other.”

As I spoke, I kept watching Mignon’s face. She cupped her chin in her hand and sat still and silent while I could see the lights and shadows of thought flow through her beautiful dark eyes.

“What is she thinking?” I wondered. “Is she doing the calculation to check my math? Have I presumed too much in telling her this on a workday afternoon at her desk?”

“It is very interesting that you are telling me this,” Mignon finally said. “My mother used to tell us this when I was a little girl. She told us this in her own way without the benefit of much education. I didn’t really get it then, but there was something there. She said how God thinks about the sparrows is how he thinks about us and he sees every one of us the same way. Now, I see it from what you just told me. Thank you.”

“It is great, isn’t it?” I said. “God is good all the time.”

“Yes, he is,” Mignon replied.

I stood up then and went in to see the executive that I had come to see. The conversation has stayed with me though.

It’s not a big, dramatic story — just a five minute exchange between two busy people on a Wednesday afternoon. But it conveys the most important point that you and I will ever know — our heavenly Father loves us unconditionally.

I am writing to you about this because I think you need to hear exactly what the Father thinks about you and what Jesus Christ did for you to carry through on that thought. The Father and the Son love you so much that the Father sent the Son to earth to identify with every ache and pain you suffer, to stay with you through your lousy choices and the resulting mistakes and shame.

Jesus loves you so much that he would rather have died than to live without you. The Father in his gracious love gives you eternal life at his side through the Son who now lives for you the same way that he died for you. You are precious to the Father and to Jesus and they proved it. This is absolute truth for you regardless of how any one else has discounted you and written you down as worthless.

The song, “His Eye is on the Sparrow,” has more verses–

“Let not your heart be troubled,”

His tender word I hear,

And resting on His goodness,

I lose my doubts and fears;

Tho’ by the path He leadeth,

But one step I may see:

His eye is on the sparrow,

And I know He watches me;

His eye is on the sparrow,

And I know he watches me.

#

Whenever I am tempted,

Whenever clouds arise.

When song gives place to sighing,

When hope within me dies,

I draw the closer to Him,

From care He sets me free:

His eye is on the sparrow,

And I know He cares for me;

His eye is on the sparrow,

And I know He cares for me.

#

I sing because I’m happy,

I sing because I’m free,

For His eye is on the sparrow,

And I know He watches me.

Jesus touched lepers, spoke peace to the angry and violent, conversed with the morally disreputable, welcomed persons of different backgrounds and culture, invited the scruffy to dinner, forgave the shamed, and calmed the over-busy. He asked for nothing in return except acceptance of his love as the compelling power of their life. The economics of the kingdom of God are the economics of grace and in grace there are no write-offs for damaged goods. There is only Christ’s unconditional offer to exchange your brokenness for his wholeness in the perfection of his love.

Even if no human can be found to come to your defense and extend you this grace–if your ex-spouse says “I don’t love you anymore,” your parents announce that “You’re a disgrace unworthy of our time and attention,” your congregation deems you a moral leper and denies you fellowship, your boss tells you “I can get lots of sparrows at a half-penny a piece and you have no value to me”– remember that your Father in heaven says, “You’re fall has not escaped my notice. I know every detail of your fallen condition and I love you still. Why, if you were the only sparrow out there, I would come for you! My grace is sufficient for you. Trust your broken wing to me for healing.”

Is this too much to believe? Hardly! It’s the first and last lesson of basic “Sparrow Economics 101″ taught by Jesus Christ.

Under the mercy of Christ,

Kent

————————–

Please note that the content and viewpoints of Mr. Hansen are his own and are not necessarily those of the C.S. Lewis Foundation. We have not edited his writing in any substantial way and have permission from him to post his content.

————————–

Kent Hansen is a Christian attorney, author and speaker. He practices corporate law and is the managing attorney of the firm of Clayson, Mann, Yaeger & Hansen in Corona, California. Kent also serves as the general counsel of Loma Linda University and Medical Center in Loma Linda, California.

Finding God’s grace revealed in the ordinary experiences of life, spiritual renewal in Christ and prayer are Kent’s passions. He has written two books, Grace at 30,000 Feet and Other Unexpected Places published by Review & Herald in 2002 and Cleansing Fire, Healing Streams: Experiencing God’s Love Through Prayer, published by Pacific Press in spring 2007. Many of his stories and essays about God’s encompassing love have been published in magazines and journals. Kent is often found on the hiking trails of the southern California mountains, following major league baseball, playing the piano or writing his weekly email devotional, “A Word of Grace for Your Monday” that is read by men and women from Alaska to Zimbabwe.

C.S. Lewis in the News – May 11, 2012

cslewisfoundation — Fri, 11 May 2012 18:52:45 +0000

Here are this week’s appearances of C.S. Lewis and his works across the web:

A Narnian bear (one of the Bulgy Bears?) on display at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Australia

Events

Our very own The C.S. Lewis Retreat at Camp Allen opens for registration. The Retreat will take place at Camp Allen Retreat Center in Navasota, Texas, from November 9-11. There will be three tracks (readers, writers, and kids), an early arrival option for Friday morning/afternoon with various sessions and workshops for writers and nonwriters, dance and music performances, worship, fellowship, hosted group on event themes, outdoor activities, Bag End Cafe, and much more! Save up to $65 per person by registering by July 15th.

Visit our website for more information and updates. Featured speakers and performing artists include:

More updates are coming soon (some just as soon as I finish this blog post!).

We’re Looking for a Few Good Interns

cslewisfoundation — Wed, 09 May 2012 16:40:18 +0000

Intern Mary Carol Barks, former Intern Chris Howell, and "Intern Prime" Steve Elmore at the 2011 C.S. Lewis Summer Institute

We are currently accepting applications for 2 communications/publications internships at our home office (Redlands, CA). Internship periods range anywhere from eight weeks to a year.

Communications interns will be immersed in the daily operations required to communicate our mission and work to our supporters, alumni, news organizations, and the general public. Intern assignments may include copywriting, desktop publishing, graphic design, Internet research, website development, social media, blogging, proofreading/editing, publication production, public relations tasks, audio/ video/ photograph production, development/fundraising communications, and archiving.

Intern candidates must be current college students or very recent graduates. For the current openings, interns must live within commuting distance to the C.S. Lewis Foundation and have reliable transportation to/from our Redlands office. For more information, please visit http://www.cslewis.org/about/internship/index.html

If you know someone who would be interested, please forward this message!

A Word of Grace – May 7, 2012

cslewisfoundation — Mon, 07 May 2012 16:27:28 +0000

Dear Friends:

When they reached Capernaum, the collectors of the temple tax came to Peter and said, “Does your teacher pay the temple tax?” He said, “Yes, he does.” And when he came home, Jesus spoke of it first, asking, “What do you think, Simon? From who do the kings of the earth take toll or tribute? When Peter said, “From others,” Jesus said to him, “Then the children are free. However, so that we do not give offence to them, go to the sea and cast a hook, take the first fish that comes up; and when you open its mouth, you will find a coin; take that and give it to them for you and me.” (Matt. 17:24-27)

It’s a bad idea to go out without Jesus. I should have known better before coming downtown today.

I am a commercial fisherman who wants to be a disciple. Part of being a disciple is to make one’s teacher look good, right?

But I never saw this coming. I understand catching fish with nets. I know from experience that nets meant to entangle fish can become entangled in weeds and rocks.

That’s how I am feeling after the tax collectors ask me, “Does your teacher pay the temple tax?” out there in the market place with everyone listening.

“Yes, he does” I tell them without a moment’s thought.

Their knowing smirks tell me that I’m in big trouble. I hate this. They don’t know Jesus like I do. I am with the man day and night. I have never seen him pay the tax, but neither have they! No, wait…that doesn’t sound so good.

Let me think. I am an intimate associate of the hottest preacher and I want him to succeed. I mean what kind of legitimacy will he have to the church and the community if he doesn’t play by the rules. After all, I’ve heard him say myself, “I have come not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it.”

The temple tax is one of our oldest rules. God gave it to Moses way back in the wilderness. It’s a flat tax paid by rich and poor alike as a reminder that the Lord has ransomed our lives from captivity (Ex. 30:11-16). It goes to pay for the operations and upkeep of the temple. Who could be against that?

Besides, death and taxes are a sure thing. If you’re Jewish and over 20 years of age, you pay the tax! And the collectors are here to make sure we do.

It’s hot out here today. I’m sweating. There are times when I’d really rather be out on the water.

So I head home. No sooner am I in the door and have washed up than Jesus asks me, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tribute? From their children or from others?”

He addresses me by my real name instead of my nickname. He’s going somewhere with this, but where?

“From others,” I answer quizzically.

Jesus drives the point home, “Then the children are free.”

I flush red. My cheeks burn. He knows what I said to the tax collectors. I’ve shot off my big mouth again.

Jesus is the Son of God. I believe this. He’s taught me that I too am a beloved child of my heavenly Father. I just assumed that it was right for us to pay the entrance fee to get inside, but that would make us only spectators, not children at home in our Father’s house.

What do I do now? I am trapped between pleasing Jesus or satisfying the religious establishment.

We look at each other. He sees right through me; sees everything, but I barely see anything.

The temple tax collectors are tough. They’ll hold us to my word. How is it that I start out with good ideas and the best of intentions and always end up in deep water without a boat? I hate looking foolish. I can usually bluff my way through trouble, but not with those guys and certainly not with Jesus.

Jesus hasn’t taken his eyes off of me. Now he clears his throat. “However,” he begins. This is different. He is the straightest-talker I’ve ever known and a conditional “however” is rare for him.

“However, so that we do not give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook, take the first fish that comes up; and when you open the mouth, you will find a coin; take that and give it to them for you and me.”

The words pour out of him in a steady stream until my anxiety is washed away.

The “however,” was for me. He is doing what he doesn’t need to do and he’s doing it for me just to get me off the hook. His grace satisfies the law.

I am so relieved that I don’t even stop to think of how absurd a coin-dispensing fish sounds until I am on the way to the shore.

But it’s Jesus who told me to do this and I’m beginning to believe that anything is possible with him. Instead of me making him look good, he makes me look good. Go figure!

I always thought I was strong, tough and clever and could make my own way and get through anything. Any idea that I would need mercy was an insult to my pride.

The more that I’m with Jesus I am realizing that I am not who I thought I was and he is a lot more than I thought he was. I need his grace.

So here I am tossing my line in the lake, taking Jesus at his word that I will pull in exactly what I need. Does it get any better than this?

“O taste and see that the Lord is good. Happy are those who take refuge in him (Ps 34:8).

Under the mercy of Christ,

Kent

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Live and Study at C.S. Lewis’s Home, “The Kilns”

cslewisfoundation — Tue, 01 May 2012 19:24:11 +0000

If you’re planning to conduct research or take a study leave or sabbatical in the Oxford area, the Study Centre at The Kilns offers a unique opportunity to live, study and fellowship within an intentional Christian scholarly community.

During the academic year, The Kilns offers both short and long term residence opportunities to qualified visiting faculty, clergy, independent scholars, artists and advanced graduate students for varying lengths of residence, ranging from one week to ten months.

Click here to find out more information about the Scholars In Residence Program

A Word of Grace – April 30, 2012

cslewisfoundation — Tue, 01 May 2012 18:52:36 +0000

Dear Friends:

Our life is not found in our sufficiency, but in what we do with our deficiencies. What do when we’ve done all the right things and it doesn’t work out? Consider with me the testimony of the ancient scribe Baruch found in chapters 36 and 45 of the Book of Jeremiah.

The prophet Jeremiah gave a message to Baruch son of Neriah in the fourth year of the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, after Baruch had written down everything Jeremiah had dictated to him. He said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says to you Baruch: You have said, ‘I am overwhelmed with trouble! Haven’t I had enough pain already? And now the Lord has added more! I am worn out from sighing and can find no rest.’

“Baruch, this is what the Lord says: ‘I will destroy this nation that I built. I will uproot what I planted. Are you seeking great things for yourself? Don’t do it! I will bring great disaster upon all these people; but I will give you your life as a reward wherever you go. I, the Lord, have spoken!’” (Jer 45:1-5, NLT).

My service was a chariot wreck waiting to happen. I suppose that I always knew this, but I’d hoped otherwise.

I’m a scholar, learned in the law, literature and language. I felt God’s call on my life and skills when I first went to work for the young prophet with his flaming rhetoric and sense of the dramatic.

Those were the heady days of the boy king, Josiah. The scroll of the Deuteronomy was found when the Temple was cleaned up. The reading of Moses’ testament brought revival to Judah and I was putting the words of one of its fresh, new leaders into print.

Devotion was in vogue. The refurbished Temple was full on Sabbaths and feast days. All the best people were there.

But the goblet was always half-empty for Jeremiah. Where most of us saw piety, he saw lip-service. When reform was proclaimed, he heard hypocrisy. He ripped the mask off of the pervasive idolatry and wept over the faithlessness of the people.

Jeremiah showed up the aristocracy as monsters secretly sacrificing their children to the pagan god Molech. He called the prophets “liars” for preaching peace and prosperity when the poor were being oppressed and justice was for sale. He exposed the human trafficking and slavery that weakened the nation and prophesied its fall to Babylon because of these practices.

Needless to say, Jeremiah was vilified as a traitor and threatened with imprisonment and death. I, the very essence of the “establishment,” found myself an accomplice to a radical. The other scribes told me that I was insane for writing out the words of a mad man. I knew in my head and my heart that he was a faithful servant of the Lord and I stood by him.

Jeremiah was placed under house arrest as a threat to the public order. He called for me and asked me to write down a recap of all the messages that the Lord had given him from Josiah’s day up to the present time . He said the Lord had told him, “Get a scroll, and write down all my messages against Israel, Judah, and the other nations . . . Perhaps the people of Judah will repent when they hear all the terrible things I have planned for them. Then I will be able to forgive their sins and wrongdoings” (Jer 36:1-3).

Then Jeremiah told me to go to the Temple and read the messages aloud on the next day of fasting when all the people came to worship. He couldn’t go himself due to his arrest, but he had enormous confidence that God’s word spoken plainly would turn the hearts of the people.

Surely, it would be so. I had never met anyone with a passion for God like Jeremiah. This was going to be one of those epic moments like Elijah’s victory on Mount Carmel or Jehoshaphat’s singing victory over the invading armies. It was time for the glory of God to prevail and restore his people.

The people packed the services that day. I stood in the upper courtyard and read the scroll. It caused a stir and the administrative officials asked me to come to the palace and read it to them. I was getting in deeper, but what was I to do.

“How did you get these messages?” they asked me. I told them the truth. “Jeremiah dictated them and I wrote them down, word for word, on this scroll.”

They told me that King Jehoiakim had to hear these messages. “You and Jeremiah need to hide and tell no one else where you are.” I left the scroll with the officials and went to find Jeremiah. Any dreams I’d had of a mighty victory for the Lord were shattered like cheap clay pots. I wondered would I even survive?

It had only been my reputation on the line up to then. Jeremiah was the one in danger. Now, I was likely to die with him. Like I said, I am a scholar and no rabble-rouser. I certainly never expected to be a fugitive from the wrath of the king, separated from my family and my beloved books.

We heard that Jehoiakim sent for the scroll as soon as he heard about it. He was sitting in front of a fire keeping warm against the winter’s chill. As the scroll was read to him, the king took out his pocket knife and cut off that section of the scroll and threw it in the fire. He didn’t care what the Lord had in mind for him and his people. His attendants didn’t care either. No one in leadership stood for the Lord.

The messages that had been kindled in the fire of the Holy Spirit, hot with the possibilities of repentance and forgiveness, curled in the flames and vanished in smoke. That was it.

The king sent officers to take both Jeremiah and me into custody. Jerusalem is not that big a place and there are eyes everywhere. All I can say, is the Lord hid us from them because they looked everywhere, but they couldn’t find us.

Enough was enough, I thought, but the Lord had other plans. He told Jeremiah to write it all down again and for good measure add that Jehoiakim would be killed and his body thrown into the courtyard where it would lie unburied through the heat of the day and frost of the night.

Jeremiah dictated the whole thing to me, and I wrote it down, knowing that each word would mean my death and the enslavement of my family. Darkness was closing in.

I believed that committing my knowledge and skill to the service of the Lord and honoring his laws in all that I did would earn his protection and his peace. The word of the Lord faithfully recorded and distributed by me would lead the nation back to the greatness of his glory.

Yes, there would be problems and difficulty, but obedience to the Lord’s will would save me from painful consequences. Evil has proved to be relentless and I could not turn it away, though I did everything that I knew to be right in the sight of God.

More than what I had done, I could not do. More than what I had written down, I did not know.

So I prayed my devastation. “Why me, Lord? “I am overwhelmed with trouble. Haven’t I had enough pain already? And now you Lord have added more. I am worn out from grief and disappointment. Can’t you hear my sighs. This is your work and I am your servant. This is not fair!”

Jeremiah saw my distress and heard me pray. He said nothing then, but he must have interceded for me with the Lord.

Jeremiah was one of those men who seemed to love God a lot more than he loved people. I really never thought that he gave any consideration to me beyond what I could do for him. To tell the truth, that’s how I thought God considered me. That’s why I was devastated when my careful work failed to fulfill my expectations.

Imagine my surprise, when Jeremiah brought me a personal message from the Lord when we began our next session of dictation. “Baruch, this is what the Lord says: ‘I will destroy this nation that I built. I will uproot what I planted. Are you seeking great things for yourself? Don’t do it! I will bring great disaster upon all these people; but I will give you your life as a reward wherever you go. I, the Lord, have spoken!’”

I received the words with my trained ear and wrote them down with my practiced hand, but I dropped the quill when I’d finished. My ears rang as if Jeremiah had slapped me. My heart raced and my breath nearly stopped. The Lord speaks through my penmanship, How can it be that he speaks directly to me?

The Lord is willing to destroy everything that he has built and tear out what he has planted? That’s everything that I know and believe to be good. Who am I without it? Have I really attached myself to the wrong things?

Yahweh values my life above everything that I believe represents him to me? How am I to comprehend this? I am a scholar of the law of God and the traditions of my nation, but it’s my life that he preserves? I thought I knew, but now I realize that I am known and it brings me to my knees.

His mercy convicts me of my sin. I had turned my eyes from him to my own hurt in self-pity and frustration. My sacrifices were sacrifices for me, not for him. He asked me to look to him again to regain the joy that I had lost.

Jeremiah told me to leave the words on the scroll as a testimony to what really matters to God. I am to abandon everything to God, but God will not abandon me. My soul is staggered, humbled, and so very grateful.

The Lord knows me and cares for me. My life is his gift anywhere and everywhere that I go. This changes everything. My fear is gone. This is the hope that I will remember and cling to in the terrible days ahead.

“O taste and see that the Lord is good. Happy are those who take refuge in him (Ps 34:8).

Under the mercy of Christ,

Kent

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A Word of Grace – April 23, 2012

cslewisfoundation — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 00:08:25 +0000

Dear Friends:

O Lord, God of my salvation,

   when, at night, I cry out in your presence,

let my prayer come before you;

   incline your ear to my cry.

For my soul is full of troubles,

   and my life draws near to Sheol.

                 Psalm 88:1-3

I stop and look back down the street that I just rode up on my weekly bicycle hill climb. The gray asphalt ribbon stretches out across the valley into the foothills of the San Bernardino Mountains some thirty miles away.

The major streets and roads of our region are laid out long and straight this way because of Colonel Henry Washington. He was a U.S. Army engineer who made a survey in 1852 setting a baseline for all property lines and right-of-ways in Southern California to this day.

Our valley is a semi-arid transition zone between the coastal plain and the interior deserts. It can be hot here even in November when Colonel Washington came through. His surveyors found it difficult to obtain true fixes on triangulation landmarks because of the shimmering heat waves.

Colonel Washington’s solution was to send part of his team up the steep slopes of 10,630 foot Mount San Bernardino, northeast of the valley. They built huge bonfires on the summit. The surveyors below would go to the landmarks and fix on the summit. Darkness was required for accurate readings.

Waiting for darkness to obtain clarity sounds like an oxymoron doesn’t it? But there are some things that can only be seen clearly at night. Desert travelers have navigated by the stars since the beginning of time.

Night vision can also offer a way through issues of mind and heart that cannot be found in the bright feverishness of the day. For instance, God’s promises to Abraham came in night vision (Gen 15:5,12,17).

Nicodemus famously came to talk with Jesus by night (John 3:2). The common belief is that Nicodemus was hoping to escape the notice and criticism of his peers on the Sanhedrin. Those to whom prayer is a way of life know that long night conversations with Jesus can sort through questions and problems like no other time. Sometimes it’s more of a wrestling match than a conversation.

The Psalmist Asaph wrote a powerful description in Psalm 77 of the type of prayer that amounts to “night-wrestling” with the Lord –

I cry aloud to God,

   aloud to God, that he may hear me.

In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord;

   in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying;

   my soul refuses to be comforted.

   I think of God, and I moan;

I meditate, and my spirit faints.

          Selah

.

You keep my eyelids from closing;

   I am so troubled that I cannot speak.

I consider the days of old,

   and remember the years of long ago.

I commune with my heart in the night;

   I meditate and search my spirit:

‘Will the Lord spurn for ever,

   and never again be favourable?

Has his steadfast love ceased for ever?

   Are his promises at an end for all time?

Has God forgotten to be gracious?

   Has he in anger shut up his compassion?’

          Selah

.

And I say, ‘It is my grief

   that the right hand of the Most High has changed.’

I will call to mind the deeds of the Lord;

   I will remember your wonders of old.

I will meditate on all your work,

   and muse on your mighty deeds.

Your way, O God, is holy.

   What god is so great as our God?

You are the God who works wonders;

   you have displayed your might among the peoples.

With your strong arm you redeemed your people,

   the descendants of Jacob and Joseph.

          Selah

               . . .

Your way was through the sea,

   your path, through the mighty waters;

   yet your footprints were unseen.

You led your people like a flock

   by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

(Psalm 77:1-15, 19-20)

There is no account of night wrestling as descriptive as Jacob’s encounter with the Lord at the river Jabbok recorded in Genesis 32.

Jacob had anxiously prayed and put together his greatest plan before his dangerous reunion with his brother Esau. He divided his forces and flocks to hedge against losing everything. He arranged a substantial gift to try to appease Esau. He placed his family “and everything he had” in a more secure place across the river. Finally, he settled down alone to wait out the night by himself on the banks of the river Jabbok.

He was alone because Jacob really did not trust anyone else in a time of crisis. He lived in the conviction of his own strength and wits.

Jacob had prayed, “Deliver me, please, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I am afraid of him; he may come and kill us all, the mothers with the children” (Gen 32:11). Now the Lord came to Jacob in answer as a wrestler, not as a comforter.

Jacob thought he had made it thus far in life by outworking and outthinking the next guy. Even when God had promised Jacob great blessings of providence for him and his descendants, Jacob still tried to leverage his allegiance to God to obtain specific things that he wanted God to do for him (Gen 28:10-22). Even his name meaning “supplanter” indicated that he was an opportunist and trickster (Gen 25:26).

Facing an uncertain homecoming with a complicated strategy, Jacob was confronted in the darkness by a man with a strength and a cleverness that seemingly matched his own. Quickly, it became clear that the careful planning and the clever tactics meant nothing because Jacob was fighting for his life in hand-to-hand combat.

It was a wrestling match without rules or referee. A leg-locking, muscle-straining, choke-holding, sweat-in-the eyes, groin-kicking, hair-pulling, knock-down, drag-out brawl. Imagine bodies slammed down on rocky ground, with eyes, nostrils and lips coated with an awful mixture of mucus, sweat, saliva, blood and the fine grit of the stream bank.

Jacob’s opponent was relentless and skilled. He would not give up. Every trick and technique that Jacob had learned from a hard life spent with hard men, yielded him no advantage. His strength and cleverness were not enough. Any thought that Jacob had of winning, was replaced with a desperate need to survive.

The light of the approaching day found the men in a clinch. Jacob had almost made it through the night on his own resources and had his opponent pinned.

Jacob tightened his hold to squeeze out his victory, but in a maneuver he never saw coming, the man struck his hip with great force and the ball and socket of his hip joint gave way with searing pain. I think that Jacob realized in that moment that the Lord was only matching his strength to Jacob’s. The truth was that Jacob never stood a chance in that fight.

“Let me go, for the day is breaking,” the man said. The explanations of the day are never equal to the lessons of the night.

Jacob knew that he needed something from this mysterious man who had taken him to his limits and broken him. “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

He would not tell Jacob his name, but with an authority that left no doubt who he was, the man gave Jacob a new name, Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans and have prevailed.”

Jacob entered the day with a limp and a new name. He didn’t think of himself as having won. The ache in his bones and the relief in his heart told him otherwise.

Jacob thought of himself as “saved.” He called the place where they fought Peniel — the face of God, because “I have seen God face to face and yet my life is preserved.”

What did Jacob learn in that night-wrestling? Can brokenness be a blessing? I walked with a painful limp for years and it reminded me that my strength is not enough. That is the message of the cross.

What power is there in a new identity? How do you think and feel when you know that you are accepted, that you no longer have to live on your own wits and strength, fooling whoever you can to get by? That is the power of the resurrection.

Such lessons are learned with clarity in the night. There is no distortion or fuzzy focus. There is only the reality that there is a God and we are to worship him, not supplant him.

Jacob didn’t have any time then to reflect on those lessons. He looked up to see Esau coming shortly after the fight ended. The long-estranged brothers wept, embraced and reconciled (Gen 33:1-11).

Jacob may have let go of the wrestling God as requested, but God did not let go of Jacob. His touch had transformed the heart of the hard-driving rancher even as it broke him in the fight over who would rule in his life.

This became obvious in the tender moment after Esau invited him to move on with him to complete the journey to the home of their father Isaac. This was a time of triumph for the exiled son who had left in shame, but returned wealthy and powerful. But Jacob’s priorities had changed overnight. He no longer had to be first in everything. He told Esau –

My lord knows that the children are frail and that the flocks and herds, which are nursing, are a care to me; and if they are overdriven for one day, all the flocks will die. Let my lord pass on ahead of his servant, and I will lead on slowly, according to the pace of the cattle that are before me and according to the pace of the children, until I come to my lord in Seir (Gen 33:12-14).

This softened spirit and compassion for the vulnerable mark a new phase in the life of Jacob. It lasted. We can see it in his counsel to his sons, his attitude toward Leah, his heartbreak over the loss of Joseph, and his care for Benjamin. It would not have happened without the night-wrestling between Jacob and the Lord.

I have night-wrestled with the Lord many times. It happens when I think that I am strong, when my plans are clever, and my judgments are unyielding. That’s when the Lord has to challenge me, fight with me, and even break me for his purpose.

It is a blessing that the Lord will continue to engage with me like that — to give me his tough and holy love. Afterwards, my perspective is always realigned in his direction and the lines are drawn in straight and legible ways.

Darkness does not hide us from the Lord’s sight, but it can help us see him better. That’s a lesson learned in prayer throughout the ages and sung by David in some of his darkest times in the wilderness –

My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast,

    and my mouth praises you with joyful lips

    when I think of you on my bed,

    and meditate on you in the watches of the night;

    for you have been my help,

    and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy.

   My soul clings to you;

   your right hand upholds me.

                 (Psalm 63:5-8)

“O taste and see that the Lord is good. Happy are those who take refuge in him (Ps 34:8).

Under the mercy of Christ,

Kent

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C.S. Lewis on the Web – April 17, 2012

cslewisfoundation — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 16:30:57 +0000

"The Mind of C.S.Lewis-A Wardrobe of Imagination" by Jim Hutchinson - part of "A Walk with C.S. Lewis" Exhibition currently at the Arlington Museum of Art. Image courtesy: faithartists.com

Mentions of C.S. Lewis have been appearing frequently on the Internet over the last week. Here are a few:

Art

Arlington Museum of Art hosts exhibition titled A Walk with C.S. Lewis, a collection of paintings inspired by the work of C.S. Lewis. For more information, you can visit the museum’s website or sponsor Faith Artists’s website.

Lewis mentioned in article relating to the role of sehnsucht in the work of recently deceased painter Thomas Kinkade.

Chuck Colson Update

Our dear friend, alumnus, and C.S. Lewis College charter board member, Chuck Colson, remains in recovery. Here’s an update from The Christian Post.

Essay contest

The Center for the Philosophy of Religion at the University of Notre Dame is offering 10 C.S. Lewis Essay Prizes of $3,000 each ” for essays published in popular venues that present the state of the art or make new progress on the topics funded through the Problem of Evil in Modern and Contemporary Thought project during the 2010-2013 academic years.” Here’s some more from their site:

Essays must be at least 1,000 words in length and must be published in a popular, non-academic publication with a circulation of at least 12,000. Publications can be religious in orientation (e.g., Christianity Today, First Things, Christian Century) or secular (e.g., Harper’s, Times Literary Supplement, The National Review, The Atlantic). Selected online publications will also be considered (e.g. Slate.com). Essayists are encouraged to consult with the Center’s director to determine the suitability of a proposed venue for prize eligibility.

Theatre

Production of Freud’s Last Session is still running strong, now in Chicago.

A Word of Grace – April 16, 2012

cslewisfoundation — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 17:18:47 +0000

Dear Friends:

On a Monday morning, facing the steep climb of the work week ahead, I take grace from wherever I can find it.

I find grace this particular morning in an observation of Patty, my fitness trainer. She meets me twice a week at the physical therapy clinic and attempts the difficult task of making my 58-year-old body strong and fit.

Patty is a calm and intelligent woman who laughs easily. She is compact and athletic as befits her profession.

Her first career working with at-risk youth in a continuation high school, broke her heart with so much damage and unfulfilled potential. So she turned to training. Patty has a healer’s gift for restoring and strengthening bodies abused and weakened by injury and neglected diet and exercise.

She works me hard, but watches carefully to see that I don’t hurt myself. This morning she turns out to be as much my chaplain as my trainer.

I am on the second of three sets of 15 repetitions of squats while lifting a weighted bar that is balanced on my shoulders behind my neck. “Look up,” Patty tells me. A few squats later she again says, “Keep looking up.” So I lift my head and push on through the set.

Before I start the third set, I ask her, “Why do you tell me to look up?”

“If you bow your neck,” she replies, “you are giving in to the weight and it will press you down. If you keep looking up, you will lift the weight. Looking up makes all the difference.”

“I understand,” I say. “What you are telling me has a far wider application than exercise.”

Like I said before, I take grace wherever I can find it these days. This is a little story with a big point.

We all carry loads, often of staggering weight and comprised of all kinds of things picked up in the struggles of living. We bow our necks to the loads, give in to them, and try to carry them with deficient strength. Not surprisingly, the weight increases and presses down until it breaks and crushes us.

The proper form for dealing with our loads is to keep looking up to the Lord with total focus of our body, soul, mind and strength. Like Patty said, “Looking up makes all the difference.”

Sometimes we lack the strength to lift our head. God will supply that too.

David was weighed down by the consequences of his sin, a split in his family,and the revolt of his people led by his estranged son Absalom. The once-mighty warrior king of Israel was a broken man looking for strength when he wrote –

Many are saying to me,
   “There is no help for you in God.”
          . . .
But you, O Lord, are a shield around me,
   my glory, and the one who lifts up my head.
(Ps 3:2-3)

Our God gives us the strength to look up even as we are being crushed. That’s a word of grace for a Monday morning when your load is heavy and the temptation is so strong to hang your head and give into it. “Don’t give into the weight,” our Lord pleads. “Look up and I will lift the weight.” Amen!

“O taste and see that the Lord is good. Happy are those who take refuge in him (Ps 34:8).

Under the mercy of Christ,

Kent

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A Word of Grace – April 9, 2012

cslewisfoundation — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 18:08:15 +0000

Dear Friends:

If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those who have also died in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. (1 Cor 15:17-18).

I grew up where it rained a fair bit, enough to raise the redwoods to towering heights in the coastal canyons where the creeks ran year around.

It was astonishing to see the pictures of the Sonoran Desert in the Arizona Highways magazine that made it to our living room coffee table every other month during my childhood. The cactus and the red rock formations could have been from another planet so different were they from the rolling central California countryside and beaches.

There were also photographs of wildflowers stretching to the horizon and flowing streams springing out of canyon walls. Patricia moved to Arizona with her family when she was eight. The first time that I went home with her from college, I was surprised that the desert looked like . . . well, a hot, dry, brown desert.

Patricia told me, somewhat cynically, that those pictures were probably taken on the one day of the year, perhaps the one week, that the desert bloomed. This raised visions of Josef and David Muench, the father-son team who seemed to take every picture in the magazine, racing all over the state furiously clicking their Leica cameras from dawn in the White Mountains to sunset over the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.

Those pictures also proved that there was life in the desert which seems to be the main point of Arizona Highways. What a marvelous grace that is! It is a testimony that there is cause for hope.

The Apostle Paul told the Corinthian believers that Jesus’ death would have been an empty desert without the resurrection. Whatever your intentions in going into those sun-blasted wastelands, as starkly beautiful as they may be, the reward is coming out of there alive and renewed.

Wounded and drained, Jesus asked the Friday afternoon question, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34). His dying thought was that everything was stripped away from him including the comfort of the Father’s love. The Son of Man was left with the mere belief that he had a God even though he seemed absent in that moment.

It is the Father’s glory to bring life to the desert and raise his Son from the grave and us with him (Ps 104:29-30; Rom 6:4). In His power and love, even death points to life (Jn 12:24-26). That is the message of the cross and the resurrection. It is the same power of the Creator that brings a tulip surging out of frozen ground and gives the cactus wren a home in inhospitable places.

God’s first word to us speaks our life into existence. However we mishandle that gift on this earth, our Lord never quits on his desire that we live eternally at his side (1 Pet 3:8-13). That desire is the expression of the true love which is the very nature of our heavenly Father.

Love comes to life in the response of the beloved. Our faith that the Father’s love for us exceeds the fatal limitations of our sin is what brings us to eternal life in and with Jesus Christ. He led the way for us with his belief that the Father would come through for us even when any justification for hope seemed erased (Rom 6:5-11).

The cross proved that our holy God loves us enough to live and die as one of us (Rom 5:1-11). The resurrection proved that God’s love is limitless (Rom 8:38-39). The power of death, the curse of sin, is broken. We have the freedom of eternal life with God.

We need not fear that our dry seasons, desert passages, and dark nights will be interminable. Our Lord Jesus Christ is risen and his life is stronger than death for those who believe. That is the message and power of the resurrection. Therefore –

The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad,

   the desert shall rejoice and blossom;

like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly,

   and rejoice with joy and singing.

The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,

   the majesty of Carmel and Sharon.

They shall see the glory of the Lord,

   the majesty of our God.

(Isaiah 35:1-2)

“O taste and see that the Lord is good. Happy are those who take refuge in him (Ps 34:8).

Under the mercy of Christ,

Kent

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Living the Legacy of C.S. Lewis

A Word of Grace – May 14, 2012

C.S. Lewis in the News – May 11, 2012

Museums

Theatre

Books

Blogs

Events

We’re Looking for a Few Good Interns

A Word of Grace – May 7, 2012

Live and Study at C.S. Lewis’s Home, “The Kilns”

A Word of Grace – April 30, 2012

A Word of Grace – April 23, 2012

C.S. Lewis on the Web – April 17, 2012

Art

Chuck Colson Update

Essay contest

Theatre

A Word of Grace – April 16, 2012

A Word of Grace – April 9, 2012