I love the seasons and I'll probably write about them every time they inspire me.  There is something so spectacular about the first changing leaves and the first real coat of snow.  Today as I looked out around me I couldn't help but be grateful for the beauty of the place I live.  It snowed a lot last night.  In one evening the world was transformed.

 The last leaves clinging to the trees are now covered in a world of white.  The trees themselves have taken new shape.  Some of them have broken with the weight of their new decoration reminding me that snow is a mixed blessing.  It nourishes, beautifies, and hydrates.  But it also freezes, breaks, and kills.

There is a real deadly beauty to the snow.  I suppose that's why we find it so beautiful.  The things in Nature that impress us most are always the ones that scare us a little.  That's why we call it majestic.  This wondrous dichotomy has impressed others before me.  I think Rg Gregory effectively captured the beauty and danger of snow when he wrote his Images of Snow:

The most profound imagery for me in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is the un-dragonning of Eustace.  After a brief conversation with Aslan, he realizes he has to remove his skin.  He does so only to discover another layer beneath.  This goes on and on until it seems almost hopeless.  Aslan then informs Eustace that he's going to have to let Aslan help him.  Aslan sinks his claws into Eustace's tough dragon skin and tears it from his body.  It's excruciating but exhilarating.  Eustace looks into the pool before him and realizes that he has been set free.  From then on out, Eustace is a changed boy who will come to play important roles in further Narnian stories.

Repentance is exactly the same.  Very often we realize that we need to change and begin to make efforts only to find further difficulties revealed.  It is only when we let the Lord take charge that real change actually begins.

     The magical world of Narnia exists as a place of ultimate freedom. Within it, there is a nature with an openness not found in our world.  Here fairy tales and imagination blossom in a more transparent yet more concrete way.  Right and wrong appear more distinct. The possibilities within Narnia appear endless.  The honesty and the other-worldliness in Narnia create the real growth the Pevinsies experience.  To truly embrace Narnia is to be un-fettered. This world holds us back.  Every day we are bombarded with messages that we are not good enough, smart enough, or attractive enough.  Before long, a chain of doubts, insecurities, and proprieties find the Gods within us crammed into neat little boxes.  Entering Narnia changes all that.  Narnia is a place where divine potential is unleashed.

I absolutely loved Perelandra.  The imagery and storytelling were entertaining but the most compelling part of me what the battle between the Un-Man and Ransom.

I'm not talking so much about the actual physical fight - which was pretty awesome - but the ongoing verbal struggle the two engage in.  I felt exactly as Ransom did as he tried his best to convince the Green Lady that the Un-Man was lying, that his half truths hid important facts from her, and felt as he did that nothing he could do would be enough.  He begins to wonder why Maleldil hasn't sent anybody to help him.  It was all so unfair.

The climax then is when Ransom realizes that he is who has been sent and that it is his responsibility to stop the Un-Man.  This is the most important moment any of us can have.  When we realize that each of us has been sent to Earth with a specific duty to improve it - in such a way that only we are capable of doing it - we realize the importance of our life, our choices, and our time.  From there every moment takes on new meaning and we find ourselves actively participating in the battle between good and evil.

As I read Surprised by Joy, the most striking thing for me was how extremely unique all of our conversions are.  Notwithstanding the unique qualities of each conversion, there are common threads that run through each of them.

I think this is where joy comes in.  That longing that causes us to search out for the truth and that surprises us and 'stabs' us with intense feeling when we stumble upon it.  That initial contact with the divine startles us and causes us to think beyond what is right before our eyes.

From there life becomes a search for that joy - for the fullness we all long for.  When this pursuit if pursued earnestly and honestly, joy begins to fill our lives and will bring us to true conversion.

Regardless of what background one is born into, when one follows the Light of Christ they will be brought as close to Him as their circumstances will allow, and when they are allowed more, that desire will be fulfilled and they will be welcomed into His presence.

I love Surprised by Joy simply because it follows Lewis's spiritual journey until his conversion.  While his slow intellectually based conversion may not be the typical route we take on our paths back to God, but it is nevertheless still a valid one.

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As I read Chapter 11 of Lewi's Miracles, I couldn't help but draw connections to the world around me.  A number of my friends have left the religions of their families.  They "believe" but no longer "practice".  They are all about "God" but not "religion".  In reality they are about neither.

I love how Lewis describes the journey mankind takes to arrive at this position.  It begins with a notion that God really isn't a personage.  We remove any human connection we see in Him.  As bit by bit of Him is unraveled, we begin to worship a Great Nothing.

We feel good about it because this Nothing requires nothing of us.  That's how we justify that we can be all about God but not about religion.  By reducing Him to a Great Nothing, we are not required to take action.  We don't have to obey because He doesn't require anything of us and we don't have to accept the evolutionary humanist explanation of reality either.  The problem is that this mindset is just fence sitting.  The worship of that Great Nothing leads to a lifetime of nothing and a world without meaning.

I hadn't set down the book for more than ten minutes when I came across this article.  This is a problem today just as much as it was in Lewis's time.  Come on people.  Wake up and make a decision.