As Christians we need to learn to open up our hearts
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
COLUMN: Food for Thought by Rev Lorna Tunstall
This week on November 22 in 1963, Clive Staples Lewis, a great Christian thinker and more famously a wonderful storyteller died at the age of 64. He is of course more recognisably known as CS Lewis.
Lewis is most widely known for his Chronicles of Narnia tales. Of these seven books three have been adapted into Hollywood blockbuster movies. He was, however, first and foremost an academic having studied at Oxford University. During his lifetime, he talked openly about how he was brought up in a religious family in Ireland only to turn his back on God and any kind of religion altogether at the age of 15. It was whilst studying at Oxford, and partly influenced by his close friend, another literary great, J.R.R. Tolkien, that Lewis returned to Christianity, albeit in his own words: “kicking, struggling and resentfully.”
As well as his fictional stories, Lewis penned many books on theology and reason, one of which, entitled 'Mere Christianity', was adapted from a series of BBC radio talks that he had made about his faith during the 1940s.
Lewis knew he could never prove Christianity through reason alone and therefore used his writings to highlight its fundamental principles such as sin, humanity’s fall from grace and redemption. He also wrote, and spoke, in such a way to make the concept of his faith accessible and easier to understand.
His Chronicles of Narnia tales feature Aslan the Lion – a wise, compassionate counsellor of the children who visit Narnia. Aslan also becomes the ultimate saviour of Narnia itself. Lewis once directly compared his character of Aslan to Jesus in an alternate reality, and there are many similarities within Aslan’s story to that of Jesus, not least the death and resurrection of Aslan.
Lewis knew that at the heart of his faith was simply a feeling and an experience of love. Unconditional love. This was a love that brought him both joy and pain. This was a love that made Lewis himself vulnerable and caused him to remark in his book “The Four Loves” that the only way to protect one’s heart was to wrap it up and avoid all entanglements. He wrote about the heart “Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness … it will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.”
Yet, Lewis did not practice this protection of his heart and he did love. That is the Christian way. We have been commanded to Love by Jesus and as Christians we know that it is this love that is at the heart of all that we know. It is what Jesus came to teach us: “love your neighbour as yourself.” Lewis claimed that even as individuals if we didn’t like ourselves, we still love ourselves and as Christians we must apply that attitude to others. As Christians we cannot lock away our hearts. As Christians we need to learn to open up our hearts even wider to others. Will that make us vulnerable? Of course, it will. Will that risk us getting hurt? Of course, it will. The risks are however worth it as the opposite is also true, opening up our hearts can also lead to the most unimaginable joy, moments of tenderness and, yes, love pure and simple.
So as we countdown through Advent to Christmas, let us, like Lewis dare to be vulnerable. Let us dare to open our hearts more and let us do so in Jesus’ name!
Rev Lorna Tunstall is the minister for Clyne, Kildonan and Loth Helmsdale churches in Sutherland.
