“If you’ve been up all night and cried till you have no more tears left in you – you will know that there comes in the end a sort of quietness. You feel as if nothing was ever going to happen again.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
It’s a hard week. I am feeling the weight of a world marred by sin, a world that is not as it should be. I am feeling frustrated with a world that quickly loses interest in the latest catastrophe, moving on to something easier, more controversial, perhaps more fun.
I get it. We have only so much capacity to feel before we go numb, before we succumb to compassion fatigue. And we all have our own stuff. Perhaps it’s not tragic but it can be difficult never the less. The car breaks down, the kids have tantrums, we feel we can’t cope, our work load is too overwhelming. Not tragedies but things that can distract us and lead to frustration and misunderstandings.
It’s times like this that I curl up with something that brings hope and joy. With stories that are redemptive.
One set of stories that fit in that category are the beloved children’s books by CS Lewis – the Narnia series. Set in the imaginary land of Narnia each book takes the reader into a journey of good and evil, of hope and sorrow, of human mistakes and sins that are redeemed and repaired There is always hope, always redemption. Good triumphs. Good cannot die. Good wins — it always wins.
I need to know this. I need to know this deep in my bones. I need to know that the broken world I witness daily is not all there is. I need to know that Good wins. I need to know that one day I will be able to come further up and further in.
“I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now…Come further up, come further in!”― C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle
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Marilyn R. Gardner 
Bless your heart. I recently found your blog and am feeling for you. What hard days you are living in today… we are all living in. But, we always have hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
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Yes!
“I need to know this. I need to know this deep in my bones. I need to know that the broken world I witness daily is not all there is. I need to know that Good wins. I need to know that one day I will be able to come further up and further in.”
I need to hear the story of redemption again and again. Throughout the week I get battered and bruised, saddened and confused, but when we gather and celebrate the Gospel, we are assured that Good has already triumphed. And we can go out again with courage and hope, in the face of a dark and hopeless world. Because we know Who it is who holds us!
Thanks for this!!!
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Thanks for the reminder of hope and joy in this tragic week . . . and since our family’s Narnia books are now living in the homes of our children, I will download the series to my Kindle today. We must keep breathing and hoping for every soul in this world who desperately needs our faith in redemption and in the triumph of goodness.
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I remember during the week of the LA riots back in the early 90’s being so oppressed by it all and then sitting down to listen to Stravinsky’s Firebird being played by the university orchestra. What a balm to my soul it was to realize that throughout the mythologies of so many cultures, there exists that archetype of resurrection and renewal–so important to see not only death but resurrection as well.
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