I recently read a thread on X about C.S. Lewis’s longing for something he could not define. He was a brilliant atheist but he found life did not satisfy him. He wanted more. He said, ““If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world”
His good friend J.R.R. Tolkien told him that what he was longing for was God. Of course, if you know anything about Lewis’s life, you know that he went on to embrace Christianity and became one of its biggest defenders. I have no doubt he could have won any debate on the subject. And his books, besides The Chronicles of Narnia, attest to his ardent faith. Mere Christianity is a classic treatise of that faith.
Lewis lived at a time of an unsettled world and had served in and been traumatized by WWI. Apparently that experience along with his worldview at the time led to his atheism. But he was not a happy man.
In truth, I do not believe any of us can be happy apart from knowing Jesus as our Savior and Lord. God placed something in each one of us – eternity in our hearts – to make us long for more. Like Lewis, we can spend our lives searching for it, and God tells us that when we seek Him with all of our hearts, we will find Him. Or we can ignore Him or run from Him and think we can handle life without Him. But there will come a point in life, whether sooner or later, that we will realize that we are not as in control of our lives as we think we are now.
The Bible tells us that God is actually the one who is seeking us. He is the Good Shepherd looking for His lost sheep, coming to find and rescue us to bring us home. He longs for us as a parent longs for a lost child, and He rejoices when we are back in His arms.
What other god in all of history is like the God of Scripture, the Creator and Lover of our souls? Which religion in the world can explain this longing within us for more? What other faith speaks truth because its Author IS truth?
I find it sad and rather surprising that so many people don’t want to do an honest search to see if the story of Christianity is true. Lewis wanted to know, as did Lee Strobel whose search ended with him documenting that search in his book A Case for Christ. The truly seeking heart will find in Jesus the answer they are looking for, but I fear that many have grown apathetic to such searching or they simply want to follow their own path, true or not.
One day God has promised that everyone will see Him and then they will know. But He also tells us not to wait for that day, because when every knee bows before Him, those who did not believe Him before that moment, will perish without excuse.
I pray that day will not catch anyone unaware of the Truth, who is Jesus. He Himself said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)
C.S. Lewis knew the void in his heart needed to be filled. Thankfully, for him, he didn’t simply fill it with everything the world, the flesh, and the devil have to offer. He determined to seek and find, and once he found that Christianity is true, he never looked back.
I pray we will all do the same.
~Selah
