{"id":132918,"date":"2024-11-22T17:16:28","date_gmt":"2024-11-22T22:16:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=132918"},"modified":"2024-11-22T17:39:19","modified_gmt":"2024-11-22T22:39:19","slug":"cs-lewis-on-cs-lewis-day-iv-his-description-of-his-own-conversion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=132918","title":{"rendered":"CS Lewis on CS Lewis Day (IV)&#8211;His description of his own Conversion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England. I did not then see what is now the most shining and obvious thing; the Divine humility which will accept a convert even on such terms. The Prodigal Son at least walked home on his own feet. But who can duly adore that Love which will open the high gates to a prodigal who is brought in kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance of escape? The words \u201ccompelle intrare,\u201d compel them to come in, have been so abused be wicked men that we shudder at them; but, properly understood, they plumb the depth of the Divine mercy. The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and His compulsion is our liberation.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8211;C.S. Lewis, <strong>Surprised by Joy<\/strong> (Harcourt Brace, 1956), p.228<\/p><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Appreciate this from <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TrevinWax?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@TrevinWax<\/a> on how C. S. Lewis, who died on today\u2019s date 61 years ago, spent his last days\u2014enjoying creation, reading, meeting with friends, &amp; corresponding w\/ people, seeking to do them spiritual good. I want to transition like this. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/KsVtYYQjNf\">https:\/\/t.co\/KsVtYYQjNf<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Keith Plummer (@XianMind) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/XianMind\/status\/1860045504517931046?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 22, 2024<\/a><\/blockquote> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That<span class=\"ellipsis\">&hellip;<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=132918\">Read more &#8250;<\/a><\/div>\n<p><!-- end of .read-more --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":794,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[186,108,164],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-132918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church-history","category-religion-culture","category-soteriology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/794"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=132918"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132918\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":132923,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132918\/revisions\/132923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=132918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=132918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=132918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}