The Silver Chair & Plain ol' Paper Clips

Friday night after dinning out, Ginny and I watched a video movie, The Silver Chair; it is the BBC production of an episode in C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles Of Narnia.

Saturday morning after breakfast at Denny’s, we stood for a long time in the restaurant parking lot smoking and talking about how Lewis’s allegory related to our own Christian life.

Incidentally, once you’re grown up enough to read children’s books again, I think the Narnia books are the most helpful things I’ve ever read. I highly recommend them.

In The Silver Chair, the great lion, Aslan calls two young people from our world to his. He gives them four rules or signs to follow and assigns them the task of rescuing a lost prince. The kids undergo all sorts of adventures among marshwiggles and giants. They discover their task has implications far beyond just rescuing the enchanted prince. The fate of a world hinges on their actions.

As we stood in the Denny’s parking lot, Beauty and I discussed how Lewis’ worldview in this story relates to us.

It doesn’t.

Neither one of us is aware of any calling to do any particular thing.

Here’s a summary of our conversation:

Christ has given us no clear-cut task to perform. No giant to outwit. No witch to slay. No lost prince to rescue.

Our Christian life would be much easier if we had such a specific commission.

Now, I’ll grant that there are Christians who feel compelled to get a certain job done. Their experience is beyond mine.

I’m not aware of God calling me to zero in on any particular task.

For Ginny and me, the Christian life is much harder than that. Our life involves a relationship more than a task. What Christ said to us is not, “Get this job done” but rather, “Follow me”.

We feel as though we are spear carriers in the great opera. We provide background while the stars of the show perform. We’d stand in the role of Mr. & Mrs. Beaver in the Lion, Witch & Wardrobe, first of the Chronicles Of Narnia books. We chop wood, sew blankets, cook meals and dwell in our own snug, cozy little lodge waiting till we hear that Aslan is on the move, then we may be called upon to do some little something to move things along.

We’re just generic brand Christians.

Maybe like religious WD-40, our purpose is just to lubricate so things go smoother for working parts.

A pair of hawks circled high above the Denny’s parking lot as we talked.

We observed three elements in our Christian life:

First, the Lord God calls us to be a certain type of person.

“Be ye holy for I am holy,” He said.

We are to be honest. Forgiving. Sober. Transparent. Compassionate. Grateful. Chaste. Decent. Thankful. Helpful. (St. Paul’s letters contain whole laundry lists of things we are to be).

Yet, we find it is much easier to do than to be. Frantic religious activity gives us a sense superiority and purpose. Keeps us from thinking. Hides us from God.

We feel uncomfortable in the presence of holiness and mask our dis-ease by religious busy work.

Yet, Jesus also does call us to do certain things.

We are to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the prisoner, care for the sick, comfort the feebleminded, bear one another’s burdens, goody-goody stuff like that.

Curious thing:

Jesus once told the disciples, “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father”.

We see this prophecy fulfilled daily.

In a single year a modern physician heals more sick people than Jesus did in his whole earthly lifetime. Any ophthalmologist brings sight to more blind people. Any tv evangelist preaches the Gospel to more listeners. At the soup kitchen I used to help out in, the cooks fed way more than 5,000 hungry people each month year in and year out.

But we are so accustomed to such ordinary miracles that we take them for granted.

So Beauty and I feel that while doing stuff does play an important part in the Christian life, it’s role is over emphasized.

Jesus said we should do such stuff in secret anyhow.

Don’t make a big deal out of it.

Do good then go away.

So, we observed that our life elements consist of being, doing, and, most importantly, following.

For us, that last one is where the faith hits the fan.

We live in as material, physical beings in a physical, material world and try to follow a supernatural Person without having a clear cut idea of what specifically He wants of us here and now, or where He is leading.

That’s tough on one level, easy on another.

Sometimes He leads us into brutal battle. No doubt about it, following Jesus can get you killed, maimed or, at best, humiliated. He tells us what to do but not the consequences of what will happen when we do it.

Jesus is sneaky that way.

When the kids in the movie freed the insane prince from his bonds, they could not be sure if he would attack them or befriend them. Their assignment was to free him whichever.

In one sense following Jesus leads us to where He is. The straight and narrow path leads beside still waters and green pastures to Heaven.

And, while Ginny and I are not aware of a specific task to accomplish, we do know there is a solid goal ahead — and that is not a place in Heaven!

The apostle John said, “Beloved, now are we the children of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is”.

The goal of the Christian life is nothing less than to become Christ-like!

St. Paul says that is the eternal purpose of the whole shebang!

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren”.

Why do I think this is an easy thing?

Because when we hang around Jesus, He sort of rubs off on us.

Like stroking a knife blade against a magnet, the blade is still a blade, it still cuts, but it becomes magnetized. A hammer heads still pounds nails but its internal alignment polarizes with that of the loadstone.

Following Christ works something like that. You are still yourself, but some internal alignment changes — you start to become Christ-like.

And this stroking and re-alignment is a life-long process till suddenly, in our last day, “When He shall appear, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is”.

Isn’t it more than a bit presumptuous to think that we shall someday become godly?

Yes, it is.

But that’s what God say He intends for us.

Maybe a knife blade or a hammer makes too strong an analogy. Think instead of a paperclip. It too can become magnetized and lift up other paper clips along with it.

The lowly paperclip does nothing of itself. The master magnet does the whole transforming thing. The paper clip has nothing to boast about. It is the recipient of this transforming magnetic grace — as are we.

Anyhow, I think that while few of us are called upon to rescue princes, we are all called upon to one day become princes. Princesses. A Royal Priesthood.

Yes, ordinary folks like you and me — Holy unto the Lord.

“For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for evil. To give you a future and a hope”.

That’s cool.

———

In church Sunday the pastor, as he does each week, called for anyone celebrating a birthday to come forward and the congregation all prays a blessing for them.

Two ladies went forward. I assumed they were both my age or perhaps a little younger. Turns out they were mother and daughter.

The mother, who acted more lively and alert than I do, said she turned 94 last week!

Makes me feel old already.

———

Oh, the other movie we watched over the weekend was The Terminator. Great movie, but it didn’t generate as much theological speculation for us.

Although the concept of a relentless, inexorable evil being out to destroy you and everything you love at all costs may merit some thought.