Monday, March 17, 2008

Austin news and an Inkling

We're very excited about having a dear friend with us the next couple days, Stephen Vance from Toronto. He'll be speaking in Austin this Tuesday and Wednesday at 7:30 pm, DV. If you're interested do come.

On Thursday we'll be taking Stephen up to Melfort, Saskatchewan for the annual Taylorside Youth Conference. Pray that the Lord will bless his Word to us young people.

In light of these events I undertook a major cleaning of the study tonight. What a blessing that I have Helen to prod me a little in things like this! I'm afraid that much more than my office would be in disarray without Helen. My whole life would be a mess without her.

I didn't need any prodding to read a little C.S. Lewis last night, though. The Weight of Glory, Learning in War-Time, and Transposition all proved to be exhilarating reads which could not be interrupted until finished. I don't have time now, but I know that in the future each of these addresses will reward thoughtful assimilation. After reading them I couldn't believe how long a time I had allowed to lapse since last reading Lewis. I can remember hanging on for dear life in Mere Christianity when I was in first-year college. It was good I hung on, too, because in second year a debate came up before class in which morality was deemed to be relative, and thus irrelevant. I tried, however feebly, to defend the Christian worldview. And shortly thereafter I lent Mere Christianity to the chief espouser of the relativistic view. A day or two later he handed the book back with a simple "Thank you". Lewis had persuasively defended the obvious, and the proud young man who days earlier had had so many words of "wisdom" to share, was reduced to two small words of humble admission. And my inward response was a "thank-you" too, directed heaven-ward, for giving the Church men with minds like Lewis had, so that the faith of an impressionable young man could be strengthened, and not squashed, in the anvil of secular scrutiny.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love the writing of Lewis. Only last week I ordered The Four Loves, The Problem of Pain, and 'Til We Have Faces online. With great impatience I am patiently waiting for their arrival. If you've not got or read any of these let me know. As I recall I owe you at least a few books at the moment.

Mere Christianity is an awesome read, although his view on the Christian society was a tad irreconcilable with the notion of total depravity.

MJK said...

Happy reading Brandon! The one I don't have is The Four Loves. I'll have to borrow it from you some day. I found the first 50 pages or so of Mere Christianity to be amazing, but then it's a little up and down from there. It's great to know that you're a fellow Lewis fan!

BTW, is my RSS feed working for you now? I tried it the other day and it seemed to be working fine...

~Mike