C.S. Lewis or Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963) was one of the intellectual giants of the 20th century and a man of faith and influential writer of his day. If you think you have heard his name somewhere, if you’re not so familiar with him, can you recalled watching The Chronicles of Narnia movies? Yes, he is the writer of the original novels. He is famous with his logic and imaginative writing and storytelling. Superb!
At first it was hard for me to understand what he was thinking as I read his books, but over the years as I familiarize with his style and thought-flow, I start to value his insights (though I reluctantly disagree and don’t get it sometime). For example, he was able to make sense the difficulties between God’s Time-line and ours’ in regard to the ‘now’ and ‘tomorrow’ actions. He wrote in his book Mere Christianity:
“Everyone who believes in God at all believes that He knows what you and I are going to do tomorrow. But if He knows I am going to do so-and-so, how can I be free to do otherwise? Well, here once again, the difficulty comes from thinking that God is progressing along the Time-line like us: the only difference being that He can see ahead and we cannot.
Well, if that were true, if God foresaw our acts, it would be very hard to understand how we could be free not to do them. But suppose God is outside and above the Time-line. In that case, what we call ‘tomorrow’ is visible to Him in just the same way as what we call ‘today’. All the days are ‘Now’ for Him. He does not remember you doing things yesterday; He simply sees you doing them, because, though you have lost yesterday, He has not. He does not ‘foresee’ you doing things tomorrow; He simply sees you doing them: because, though tomorrow is not yet there for you, it is for Him.
You never supposed that your actions at this moment were any less free because God knows what you are doing. Well, He knows your tomorrow’s action in just the same way – because He is already in tomorrow and can simply watch you. In a sense, He does not know your action till you have done it: but the moment at which you have done it is already ‘Now’ for Him.”
If you end with a ‘wow!’ or you try to read it all over again and say ‘I understand it better now’, then C.S. Lewis’s books is for you. Go and get any of his books at your nearest bookstore. I suggest you try Mere Christianity. Happy reading – and be converted in your mind and heart. I pray that his books may lead you to THE BOOK J
THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.
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