C.S. Lewis was an atheist for the first twenty and some odd years of his life but he always acknowledged that he had a strong sense of God’s presence in his youth. As a Christ-follower, Lewis was convinced that the pull of God’s story is present in every part of our lives. Through delight, desire, and despair God calls us.
Has God set eternity within our hearts? There is no reason for us to delight in the smell of the ocean, the giggling of a child, or the feel of a new spring wind upon our faces. But we do delight. There is no natural reason that we desire to delve into the mysteries of the universe, to engage in a quiet moments of solitude, or to experience the comforting love of an unseen Presence. Yet, we do desire. And there is no inherent reason for us to despair extinction beyond death, a life without purpose, or existence for existence’s sake. But we do despair.
Could it be that Something or Someone outside of this natural world has planted delight, desire and despair within our beings? Is there a pull in our hearts toward an unseen road? Has God set eternity within our hearts?
Even before he came to faith, C.S. Lewis longed for a spiritual journey. In his first published work entitled Spirits in Bondage, he wrote in his poem ‘The Roads;’
And the call of the roads is upon me, a desire in my spirit has grown
To wander forth in the highways, ‘twixt earth and sky alone,
And seek for the lands no foot has trod and the seas no sail has known:
Question: What is one experience you’ve had that has set you on a spiritual journey?
Spirits in Bondage: A Cycle in Lyrics (1919)
C.S. Lewis desired to be a poet before he ever desired to be an author. Published just months after his return from the battlefield, Spirits in Bondage was written by a man convinced in the wickedness of nature and a humanity untouched by a Creator. Lewis, serving as a soldier in the muddy trenches of France during World War I, suffered injury, the horrors of war, and the devastating loss of fellow soldiers. These nightmarish events convinced the young Jack Lewis that either God was nonexistent or God was cruel beyond comprehension. Yet, Lewis retained a strong sense of a personal spiritual existence that he could not deny. Lewis leads the reader on a profound poetic journey into the softening heart of a once staunch God-hater seeking solace in the arms of a cosmic Creator who he is not quite ready to embrace.
Interesting Fact: Lewis published Spirits in Bondage under the pseudonym Clive Hamilton to keep his identity secret from his regiment. He did not want to be labeled ‘That bloody poet’ by fellow soldiers.
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