Jenny and I recently enjoyed a vacation with a trip to England and France. During our stay in London we took the one-hour train trip to city of Oxford. Our desire was to enjoy the unique beauty and history of this university township. Upon arriving we printed out the walking tour that retraces the places and steps of the author C.S Lewis. Lewis has been a hero of faith and creativity to me for some time and has been such a thought shaping mentor from his books and writing. Along the quaint streets and shops we came across where he first stayed when coming to Oxford as a student, then to the White Horse Pub where he and the “Inklings,” his friends, would come to discuss life and literature together. Then we found ourselves in front of Magdalen College, where he first was a student and then later a fellow (teacher). It was there where we read the following from the pages of our guide: 

The New Building: Dating from 1735 (hence “New!”), this imposing building provided C.S. Lewis with a beautifully situated suite of rooms. They were on the second floor (first floor by English reckoning), near the middle. The two windows directly to the right of the protruding center section, above the wisteria, were Lewis’. It was here that Lewis was converted to a belief in God (theism). From Surprised by Joy, by C.S. Lewis:

“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 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 of England.”

As I read these words out loud, my heart swelled and my throat caught with inspired emotion from the deposit of grace. This faith encounter struck me and moved me to tears. Jenny and I stood there and gave thanks to God for his grace upon such a meaningful servant in the Kingdom. 

Later that evening thinking about the events of the day, these two concepts settled in on me:

1. Alone in that Room - We all have our “room” where he meets us in the stillness, revealing to our real self his truth. When no one else knows or understands, he does, he meets us there, and he knows us. We answer to Him.

Psalm. 139: You have searched me, LORD, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.

2. I am not and you are not CS Lewis. But we can be who God designed us to be, and use the gifts that he has given us to share his truth and love. You are a ten at something. Do it well and unto the Lord. Show his grace through your life, time, gifts, money, and calling. 

Col. 3:23 - Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters,