I’ve lost count of how many faith heroes/holy crushes I have, but C.S. Lewis is definitely among the top of the list. C.S. Lewis was seemingly everything from an author and a broadcaster to a Christian apologist. He’s known for having written some of the most influential works of Christianity, including "The Chronicles of Narnia," "The Screwtape Letters," "Mere Christianity," and "Miracles." There are so many times in life when we feel that we can’t handle what we’re going through or we don’t even know how to begin to explain what we’re feeling. C.S. Lewis gets it. He wrote about everything you could possibly be thinking during a day, whether it’s related to God or to tea, and he wrote it in a way that might just give you the inspiration you need and the comfort you’ve been craving.
Here are 10 excerpts from various works where C.S. Lewis wrote exactly what you needed to hear.
1. When you need to be reminded that God is in control and He has a plan that is good.
“I am sure that God keeps no one waiting unless He sees that it is good for him to wait.”
2. When you need to be reminded it is often more paralyzing to remain how we are than to let go and move forward.
“It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.”
3. When you need to be reminded that things will happen in their time and worrying is unnecessary.
“The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.”
4. When you need to be reminded Who it is you’re really living for.
“If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.”
5. When you need to be reminded that God is our true desire and our true need.
“God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself because it is not there. There is no such thing.”
6. When you need to be reminded that we were created for so much more and that the feeling of being lost or out of place is rooted in the fact that earth is just our temporary dwelling place.
“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”
7. When you need to be reminded that your pain has purpose.
"Hardship often prepares an ordinary person for an extraordinary destiny."
8. When you need to be reminded that God excels at joy.
"Joy is the serious business of Heaven."
9. When you need to be reminded that you can always start something new and even some great things have laughably small beginnings.
“With the possible exception of the equator, everything begins somewhere.”
10. When you need to be reminded that you are not in control (and God’s taking care of you).
“I gave in and admitted that God was God.”