Admittedly, I have never read any of the Chronicles of Narnia books by C.S. Lewis.  But after reading this week’s chapter of our current study, I certainly am leaning towards picking up one or two or more of the books!  I guess one reason I’ve never picked them up is because I just assumed these were children’s books.  And that may be partially true.  Then again, as our author points out this week, while Lewis’ books are children’s stories, they speak very loudly to adults as well.

Brian will lead us this week in Chapter 4, “A Man’s Courage”.  Our author asks the question, “What creates a man’s personal drive and motivation in life?”  His theory is that most men are driven as the result of some form of fear.  Not so much a “fear of not succeeding” but rather a “fear of failure“.  What’s the difference, you might be asking?  Well, it boils down to what are men willing to risk.  Men tend to take less chances, play things safe, and avoid looking bad in the eyes of others.

Deeper into the chapter, our author correlates this earlier premise of men playing things safe to some explanation of how God uses our failures for some greater good; that there is purpose to pain and suffering.  In other words, if men avoid the pain (and take the safe route) then we will never experience what God has in mind for our lives.

Here’s a great quote from the middle of the chapter:

“In the midst of the storms of life we will either allow what we are experiencing to influence our view of God, or we will allow our view of God to influence what we are experiencing.”

Heavy stuff….once again.

So, what about the C.S. Lewis books I mentioned earlier?  Our chapter folds up this week with the sharing of a dialog between two characters in one of the Chronicle books, The Silver Chair:  “Jill” is a young girl who represents humanity.  And “Aslan”, the powerful lion, represents Christ.  I won’t give away the ending, but you’ll want to read all the way through this week’s chapter to bring everything full circle:  men’s fears…..God’s plans…..and the one, true “living” stream….

Enjoy!