The Real Deal

Spring cleaning can (sometimes) be a wonderful thing.

Except now it's fall, so I guess I should call it Fall cleaning. Anyway, in digging up all of my old things, I found my C.S. Lewis quote book I bought a couple years ago. In it, I discovered this gem:

"It is quite right that you should feel that 'something terrific' has happened to you...accept these sensations with thankfulness as birthday cards from God, but remember that they are only greetings, not the real gift. I mean that it is not the sensations that are the real thing. The real thing is the gift of the Holy Spirit...it will be there when you can't feel it. May even be most operative when you can feel it least."

-C.S. Lewis

Now, coming from a man who was not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, this is epic. Even if he was a member who studied this kind of doctrine on a daily basis, it still is epic. He recognized that he did not have the Gift of the Holy Ghost yet, but had the Light of Christ. I spent a lot of my mission wondering if I actually could feel the Spirit's influence, and how in the world I could figure out how He even operated, but then looking back--I realized that He was the only One guiding me. I have this Gift of the Holy Ghost that C.S. Lewis talking about, and it is operative on how obedient I am. Not how much I think I understand it. How amazing is that?

I thought it was pretty amazing back in '95!