This week we had the second installment of our study
of C .S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce. Lewis has been a long-time favorite author of
mine. As a kid I read The Chronicles of Narnia series and
struggled through The Screwtape Letters
and Mere Christianity. Although Lewis wrote and lived in a
different country and a different time, the words of his books still cut
deep today.
The opening of The
Great Divorce takes place in an imaginary version of hell that is
shockingly similar to the world we know.
The entire place is a single town that stretches for miles in every
direction. Although the city is one huge
expanse, there are no lights in windows or people on the streets,
only a handful of rude strangers waiting at a bus stop. When the narrator asks another passenger on the
bus where all the people stay and why the city seems so empty, the man explains how in hell your
imagination is what determines reality.
Instead of waiting for a house to be built, a person only needs to think it into existence. Anyone can imagine a new house and move onto a new
street whenever he or she wants. Eventually, someone else moves onto the same street, and the two of them fight or disagree. Then, they move away, farther away from
everyone else in the city. Because they
can imagine anything into existence, they can travel thousands of miles away
from each other, eventually finding a place they can be miserable by
themselves.
I read this description of hell many times over as I prepared this study because I was struck by the truth in this idea. I am guilty of isolating myself from others
for my own personal reasons. I have kept my thoughts to myself; I have hidden my own concerns, my own faults and insecurities so no one can see them. When we give in to our own tendencies and our
own selfish desires, we all move further away from each other. Sometimes we literally move away from
other people, distancing ourselves from our neighbors and from other people
groups. I confess that sometimes I walk
past my neighbors in my apartment complex without saying hello or even taking
my eyes off the ground in front of me, and I have been guilty of not
knowing their names, even though our apartment doors are in sight of each
other. I have no way of counting how many times I have missed an opportunity to be a friend because I was off somewhere else in my own head, and that's just when I think about the strangers next door. How many times have my friends needed a kind word, and I had nothing to say? When did my brother need encouragement or even just a smile, and I was nowhere around? We distance ourselves
emotionally, intellectually, and physically from anything or anyone we don’t like
or understand to shield ourselves… from what?
And why?
We are called by God to live in community with each other
and in contact with the world around us.
Consider Paul who traveled, preached, made friends, and challenged
others to live like Christ. Think about
how we are to serve together as a church, the connected and united body of
Christ, rather than a collection of individuals standing alone.
Acts 2:42 “They
devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of
bread and the prayers.”
…and if you get the chance, ask Samantha about the time she
met the girl who played Susan in The
Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe film…
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