By the Waters of Babylon – Ps 137:1
Consider two men, born decades apart, who both were significantly changed after meeting Jesus and devoting themselves to him. C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) grew up in the Church of England but, by the age of 15, decided he was an atheist, mostly because of God’s silence and the ineffectiveness of his prayers to prevent his mother’s death when he was 10. Lewis saw no use for God. But God was not done with him. After gaining his degree from Oxford University in 1922, Lewis accepted a position at Magdalen College. While at Magdalen, he found his beliefs challenged by very learned men (including J.R.R. Tolkein), and eventually he gave his heart to Jesus. From that day forward, Lewis was a changed man and went on to become one of the most influential Christian authors and minds of the Twentieth Century.
One of the people C.S. Lewis influenced was Charles Colson (1931-2012), of Watergate infamy. As Colson was facing arrest, his close friend Thomas L. Philips, board chair of the Raytheon Company, gave Colson a copy of Lewis’s book Mere Christianity. There, Colson found these words of Lewis: “Pride always means enmity—it is enmity. And not only enmity between man and man, but enmity to God.” After absorbing those words, Colson, who was later to call his autobiography Born Again, sat in his car weeping “tears of relief”. Colson went on to create an effective prison ministry, called Prison Fellowship, and he spent the rest of his earthly days in service to God.
One person’s conversion engenders another’s!
