November 22, 2024 - Good Morning! It’s Friday, November 22.
November 22, 1963 was also a Friday. I was in the second grade in Houston. My class met in one of the outbuildings on our campus. They called them “shacks” - imagine that. My teacher, Miss Curry, had her hands full with 35 seven-year-olds who were already dreaming of the weekend. And then the door opened, and everything changed. It was an older kid, maybe a sixth-grader, and he handed a note to Miss Curry. She slowly stood and told her young students that our young president had been assassinated. I remember a lot of things about that day, but the memory that is most vivid is this - my teacher asked me to take the note to the next shack. I’ll never forget what it felt like to deliver that message.
Fifty-five minutes before shots rang out in Dealey Plaza, an old man collapsed and died in Oxford, England. His name was Clive Staples Lewis. In 2000, the magazine Christianity Today voted C.S. Lewis the greatest religious writer of the 20th Century. His famous book series for children, The Chronicles of Narnia, has sold millions of copies and been turned into Hollywood movies. But it was his book, Mere Christianity, that made the greatest impression on me. It is the work of an “apologist”, an old fashioned word for “defender”. And in it, Lewis defends his faith, in a reasoned and thoughtful way.
C.S. Lewis was raised in the church, but as a young adult he lost his faith, only to return to it in his thirties. He describes himself in that experience as a “prodigal son, kicking and struggling”. Lewis, like many people, struggled with his faith throughout his life. But it was in his struggle that he found his truth. His story and his writings spoke to me as a young man. I was struck by the idea that, even though faith is certainly a decision of the heart, it can also be an experience of the mind. We can wrestle with our questions, we can deal with our doubts, and through our struggles, we can find our truth.
When an old writer died on a November day 61 years ago, the news media paid little attention, as the world reacted to the death of a young president. But the writings of C.S. Lewis live on. Here’s one of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite authors.
“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because through it I see everything else.”
Meet you back here on Monday,
David
cindertex50@yahoo.com
