{"id":86795,"date":"2019-11-22T07:30:42","date_gmt":"2019-11-22T12:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=86795"},"modified":"2019-11-21T17:49:34","modified_gmt":"2019-11-21T22:49:34","slug":"cs-lewis-on-cs-lewis-day-i-his-description-of-his-own-conversion-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=86795","title":{"rendered":"CS Lewis on CS Lewis Day (I)–His description of his own Conversion"},"content":{"rendered":"

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><\/blockquote>\n

–C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy<\/b> (Harcourt Brace, 1956), p.228<\/p>\n

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‘The Most Reluctant Convert in all of England’: Why Former Atheist #CSLewis<\/a> Became a Christian https:\/\/t.co\/KjcmcHTqqd<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/woE26E6DUP<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 The Poached Egg (@ThePoachedEgg) November 22, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n