Appendix A: Lessons from the Life of C. S. Lewis

“For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.”

— Romans 15:4, KJV

The lessons below gather some of the themes of this book so that readers can return to them. They are not a method, and they are not a portrait of a perfect man. Lewis would have been embarrassed by any attempt to make him a model. They are lessons drawn from the way God dealt with him, and each rests on Scripture rather than on his example alone.

1. God Pursues Those Who Run

Lewis did not find God; he was found. Through years of argument and evasion, God kept closing every exit, until at last the most reluctant of converts knelt down. No one is beyond that pursuit. “I was found of them that sought me not” (Romans 10:20, KJV).

2. Old Wounds Can Be Brought Back to God

Lewis’s unbelief had roots in a child’s unanswered prayer and a mother’s death. He did not pretend that the wound did not matter. In time he brought it back to God, and it became the source of his tenderness to the grieving. “He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds” (Psalm 147:3, KJV).

3. A Promise Is Worth Keeping

At eighteen, Lewis promised a friend that he would care for his family if he died. He kept that promise for more than thirty years, at great cost, long after anyone would have blamed him for letting it go. “He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not” shall dwell in God’s holy hill (Psalm 15:4, KJV).

4. The Mind Is Not the Enemy of Faith

Lewis was trained to argue by an atheist, and he never stopped arguing. He came to believe that honest thinking leads towards God, not away from him, and he spent his life giving reasons for his hope. “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD” (Isaiah 1:18, KJV).

5. Friendship Is a Means of Grace

It was in conversation with friends, walking under the trees at Magdalen, that the last barrier to faith came down. For the rest of his life Lewis was sustained by a circle of Christian friends who loved the same things and told each other the truth. “Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend” (Proverbs 27:17, KJV).

6. Belong to a Church

Lewis disliked hymns and was not by temperament a joiner. He went to church anyway, every week for thirty years, because he believed that a Christian must belong to the body of Christ. “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is” (Hebrews 10:25, KJV).

7. Confess Your Sins

Fame was a danger to Lewis’s soul, and he knew it. Week after week for twelve years he confessed his sins to an old priest who was not impressed by him. Readers who do not share his practice may still share his humility. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9, KJV).

8. Pray When Prayer Is Dry

Lewis prayed every day for decades, often without feeling anything, and he prayed by name for people he had never met. He had learned as a boy that feelings are a poor measure of prayer. “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17, KJV).

9. Give Freely

Lewis put two-thirds of his royalties into a trust for the poor and gave away much of the rest. He lived simply and did not want to grow rich on the gospel. “Freely ye have received, freely give” (Matthew 10:8, KJV).

10. Serve the Ones Who Write to You

Lewis answered thousands of letters from strangers, by hand, for more than twenty years. It was dull, exhausting and unseen work, and he did it as a duty to Christ. “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me” (Matthew 25:40, KJV).

11. Take Criticism Honestly

When a young philosopher showed that one of his arguments was flawed, Lewis was hurt, but he went back to his desk and rewrote it. A Christian need not fear the truth, even when it is unwelcome. “Faithful are the wounds of a friend” (Proverbs 27:6, KJV).

12. Love Late, and Love Fully

Lewis married a dying woman in a hospital room and loved her to the end. He did not hold back his heart for fear of losing her, though he knew that he would. “Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it” (Song of Solomon 8:7, KJV).

13. Grief Is Not Unbelief

When Joy died, Lewis did not hide his anguish or his doubts. He wrote them down, and in the end he came through them. A Christian may cry out to God in the dark, as the psalmists and Christ himself did. “Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD” (Psalm 130:1, KJV).

14. Die Ready

Lewis faced his death calmly and without fear, having lived for thirty years in the faith he had once resisted. “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21, KJV).