C.S. Lewis.

I recently took a trip to Barnes & Noble. I purchased "The Quotable Lewis," obviously by C.S. Lewis. It is a super-thick book complied of the best quotes from Lewis' works. Here are a few quotes I read while sitting on the beach this morning that have been on my mind all day.

Mere Christanity, bk. III, chap. 6, para. 9, p. 99:
"Love as distinct from "being in love" is not merely a feeling. It is a deep unity, maintained by the will and deliberately strengthened by habit; reinforced by (in Christian marriages) the grace which both partners ask, and receive, from God. They can have this love for each other even at those moments when they do not like each other; as you love yourself even when you do not like yourself. They can retain this love even when each would easily, if they allowed themselves, be "in love" with someone else. "Being in love" first moved them to promise fidelity: this quieter love enables them to keep the promise. It is on this love that the engine of marriage is run: being in love was the explosion that started it."


What true love is all about. One of my goals in marriage is to continually remind each other how we fell in love, and not only keep up the same feeling, but constantly make that love continue to grow.


The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, chap. 8, pp. 74-76:
    "Who is Aslan?" asked Susan. 
    "Aslan?" said Mr. Beaver, "Why don't you know? He's the king...It is he, not you, that will save Mr. Tumnus..." 
    "Is--he a man?" asked Lucy.
    "Aslan is a man!" said Mr. Beaver sternly.
    "Certainly not. I tell you he is the King of the wood and the son of the great Emperor-Beyond-The-Sea. Don't you know who is the King of Beasts? Aslan is a lion--the lion, the great Lion."
    "Ooh!" said Susan. "I'd thought he was a man. Is he--quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion."
    "That you will, dearie, and no mistake," said Mrs. Beaver, "if there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either braver than most or else just silly."
    "Then he isn't safe?" said Lucy.
    "Safe?" said Mr. Beaver. "Don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you."
    "I'm longing to see him," said Peter, "even if I do feel frightened when it comes to the point."


Aslan is symbolic of Christ. Read it again--and think of Him.


The Four Loves, chap. 3, para. 43-46, pp. 80-83:
"Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our natural lives. Affection produces happiness if--and only if--there is common sense and give and take and 'decency.' In other words, only if something more, and other, than affection is added. The mere feeling is not enough..."


I never realized how big the "give and take" is in a relationship or a friendship. Amazing how much more happy you are being with that person if you're equally giving, and sometimes most importantly accepting.


Huge round of applause to C.S. Lewis for being the greatest Christian philosopher of the twentieth century.