I am the kind of girl who loves quotes. I even have a whole page dedicated to them on my blog. So you can imagine that it was super hard to figure out which one to feature in this post. But after I thought about it, there was one quote that has really inspired me and reminded me about the one gift I have that I treasure above anything else: Grace.

“Each time you fall He’ll pick you up. He knows your own efforts are never going to bring you anywhere near perfection.” – C.S. Lewis

I don't read as much as I used to, but I say once a bookworm, always a bookworm. Being the bookworm that I am, I've read a TON of books, and as I was trying to figure out what book to write about today, I realized that there are few books that really truly impact me. There are good books that I read that I will remember as being good. But as I think back over them, nothing really sticks out in my mind about them. Don't get me wrong, there are books that I loved while I was reading them, but none of them have really stuck with me as something I need to read over and over again. I realized that's because they have high standards to look up to.

This is literally a tunnel of books. I want one.

Edmund is one of the characters in Narnia that I find the most dynamic. He's such an amazing picture of how all of us need grace and someone to save us. C.S. Lewis is one of my favorite authors and he never fails to surprise me - I can always think of something new and incredibly genius that he put into his books that I've never seen before.

Anyway, I had a major inspiration kick this week and made some graphics using lyrics from some of my favorite songs that remind me of Edmund. These blends are some of my favorites that I've ever made, and I wanted to share them, along with the song lyrics. (If you're reading this from the mailing list, you'll have to go to my blog to view them.)



{Stop right there. That's exactly where I lost it.
See that line. Well I never should have crossed it.
Stop right there. Well I never should have said
That it's the very moment that
I wish that I could take back.

I'm sorry for the person I became.
I'm sorry that it took so long for me to change.
I'm ready to be sure I never become that way again
'cause who I am hates who I've been.
Who I am hates who I've been.
- Who I Am Hates Who I've Been, Relient K}

So, yes... I am in a very poetic mood. I pondered this poem all day yesterday and finally wrote it down last night. It was partly inspired by C.S. Lewis's The Last Battle.


~
In a shower of starlight
We'll say goodbye
To all our pain
Let our tears dry
In a shower of starlight
We'll fall to our knees
Overwhelmed and speechless
He's opened our eyes
Alleluia
Goodnight.

In a shower of starlight
We'll dance unashamedly
In the rain
Embrace that we're free
In a shower of starlight
He'll pull us into His embrace
Hold us close
Wipe the tears from our face
Alleluia
Goodnight.

In a shower of starlight
We'll sing our last song
Vibrant and bold, yet longing
For things to come
In a shower of starlight
Our voices are one
With His, in a chorus
That's hardly begun
Alleluia
Goodnight.

In a shower of starlight
We'll meet our first love
At long last reunited
With the one we sing of
In a shower of starlight
We'll weep tears of joy
Finally with forever
Time cannot stop us now
Alleluia
Goodnight.

In a shower of starlight
We'll bid farewell
To this reality we've created
So much for this shell
In a shower of starlight
We'll say hello
To promise of all things new
Something none of us know
Alleluia
Goodnight.

In a shower of starlight
We'll watch it all end
This last word of the final chapter
Of the world of men
In a shower of starlight
We'll witness the demise
Tinged with bittersweet
In Christ there are no goodbyes
Alleluia
Goodnight.

In a shower of starlight
Beauty will fall
Into its Creator
Following His call
In a shower of starlight
This world will fall
Away for all time
We have followed His call
Alleluia
Goodnight.

In a shower of starlight
This earth's light is dimming
Making way for a new one
A beautiful story
That's just now beginning
After a shower of starlight
We'll step into the unknown
The place we were meant to be
We are finally home
Alleluia
Amen.


~

“I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now...Come further up, come further in!” - Jewel the Unicorn in The Last Battle


~
This Is Home - Switchfoot
This is home,
Now I'm finally where I belong,
Where I belong
This is home,
I've been searching for a place of my own,
Now I've found it
Maybe this is home, yeah this is home...

And now
After all my searching
After all my questions
I'm gonna call it home
I've got a brand new mindset
I can finally see the sunset
I'm gonna call it home...

I've come too far
And I won't go back
Yeah, this is home.


~
He who testifies to these things says, "Yes, I am coming soon."
      Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God's people. Amen. - Revelation 22:20-21

"I'm on Aslan's side even if there isn't any Aslan to lead it. I'm going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn't any Narnia." —C.S. Lewis

I have been thinking about this quote lately, and how it can be applied to us as Christians. Thoughts, anyone?

What a wonderful thought -- that Jesus died for each of us, just so we could be with Him, and be His children. The thought that He would have died only for me, when I am far from deserving, is almost beyond my comprehension. The love He showed us on the cross is truly love beyond all imagining.

Sometimes I feel wistful... almost sorrowful in my deep longing for home. I'm constantly homesick, at times more than others.

I miss Jesus. I miss Heaven... my true home.

C.S. Lewis was a famous, well-known author and apologist whose insight and wisdom still impacts the world today. He was most known for writing The Chronicles of Narnia, The Screwtape Letters, and Mere Christianity. He was born as Clive Staples Lewis on November 29, 1898, in Strandtown, which is a suburb of the city of Belfast in Ireland. He lived with his father Albert, his mother Flora, his brother Warren, or “Warnie”, and five servants.
C.S. Lewis detested his birth name, and when he was four he nicknamed himself Jack, or “Jacksie”. It is unknown why he chose his name, except for the fact that he owned a dog, Jack, who was run over by a car. He refused to be called anything else. He also nicknamed his brother Warren “Warnie”, and they both went by those names for the rest of their lives.
Jack spent most of his time indoors, mostly because his parents wanted to shield him from diseases & sicknesses. Jack did not mind though—he spent much of his time reading and writing stories. Jack’s parents were avid readers and would spend their evenings reading for hours. They passed on their love of reading to Jack. Jack especially enjoyed E. Nesbit’s books, which were about normal children getting into magical situations, and Beatrix Potter’s books about talking animals. He also enjoyed tales of adventure and chivalry.
In his life Jack had several experiences that parallel to events in his series The Chronicles of Narnia, and quite a few of them occurred in his childhood. Jack was 7 years old when his family moved to a large house they nicknamed “Little Lea”. Little Lea had lots of nooks, crannies, passageways, and rooms. Jack had a very active imagination, so he had lots of fun exploring with Warnie. Later, in his book The Magician’s Nephew, Jack wrote about two children who had rather the same experience.
Jack had a nurse called Lizzie, who told him and Warnie tales and lore about leprechauns and ancient gods. Jack loved the stories, and his fascination with mythology and other mystical beings stayed with him the rest of his life. It played a prominent part when he wrote The Chronicles of Narnia, since the series features many mythological creatures.
Jack and Warnie used to sit together telling stories in the dark of a hand-carved wardrobe made by their grandfather. When he wrote his book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, four children entered a magical world through a wardrobe door.
Jack’s mother died when he was only 10 years old, in 1908. After this, Jack’s relationship with his father became distant and was never fully re-established. Because of this, Jack decided to leave home and join his brother Warnie at boarding school during his elementary years. Jack faced many changes during these years. As he grew older, he got into the bad habit of smoking, which he never quite stopped. He also became, in his own words, a “prig” (a stuck-up person) ¹. Eventually, he lost that mind-set, though it took time. Most of all, his atheism and overall dislike for God began to develop.
Although he enjoyed one or two of the boarding schools, his experiences at most of the other schools he attended were not good ones. At one particular school, he had a very cruel, brutal headmaster. Afterward, he developed a strong disliking for schools, and his wounds from those bad experiences never quite healed.
Believe it or not, Jack threatened to commit suicide if his father did not remove him from one particular boarding school. His father finally relented, and so Jack was homeschooled by his father’s former tutor during the rest of his high school years. His tutor was named William T. Kirkpatrick, but Jack called him “the Great Knock”. Jack lived and studied with Kirkpatrick in his village. It was a great atmosphere for him to study in. Jack received a fair amount of freedom in his studies, and Kirkpatrick only offered occasional assistance. Jack loved to read classical literature and learned the Greek, French, and Italian languages, just so he could read books in their original forms.
One unfortunate thing about Kirkpatrick was that he was an atheist, and Jack picked up on his beliefs. Otherwise, he was quite an advantage to Jack because of his intelligent, logical way of thinking. The years that Jack spent being tutored by Kirkpatrick influenced much of his future calling.


Jack’s weaknesses in his studies were math and science, and he had difficulty progressing in these areas. These struggles almost kept Jack from having academic and writing careers. His future would have been much duller if it hadn’t been for World War I.
Since Jack was Irish, he did not have to serve in WWI, and could have instead pursued his further education. But he felt obligated to enlist in the war. Before he did, though, he tried to be accepted into Oxford College. If he was accepted, he would be able to join the Officer’s Training Corps, and he’d be given a commission.
Jack took Oxford’s entrance exam in December of 1916 and received a scholarship from University College. To get into the school, however, he had to pass one more test called “Responsions.” Although Jack was very good in other subjects, he failed the Math part of the test two separate times.
Even though Jack didn’t pass Responsions, he was allowed to live on the Oxford campus and continue studying during his training at the O.T.C. He prepared to join the army and entered a cadet battalion in training to receive a commission. While all this was happening, Jack managed to form a close relationship with his roommate Edward Francis Courtnay “Paddy” Moore. They both promised that, if anything happened to either of them, the survivor of the two would take care of the other’s family.
Jack traveled to France in November, 1917, to serve in the war with the rank of second lieutenant. He stayed there during the winter, and dealt with trench fever, a disease transmitted by lice. In the spring of 1918, Jack’s good friend, Paddy Moore, was killed in action, and Jack also was seriously injured with shrapnel wounds. He was put in the hospital, and then transferred back to London. Before he completely recovered, the war ended and Jack was released from the army.
Now that the war was over, Jack decided to pursue his studies at Oxford once more. Jack’s service in the army opened a new doorway for his future and direction in life. Because Jack had been a soldier, he was excluded from taking Responsions, and therefore was now accepted into Oxford. If Jack hadn’t served in the army, he wouldn’t have received the education he needed to become such a great influence today.
Besides studying at Oxford, Jack kept his promise to his friend Paddy Moore, and began to care for Paddy’s mother, Jane Moore, and Paddy’s sister, Maureen. Mrs. Moore already had a close friendship with Jack. She had been there for him when Jack was recovering from his wounds from war, and acted as the mother Jack never really had.
Jack really thrived in the area of classical philosophy, and graduated with honors in that subject. He thought about getting a job as a schoolmaster, but instead decided to return to Oxford to get a Master’s degree in English Language and Literature, which he attained.


In order for Jack to be able to support his new “family”, he decided to get a job as a don at Oxford College. A “don” is a teacher on a more personal level—like a tutor. Jack lectured and trained his students to defend their beliefs logically. Jack held this occupation for many years until shortly before his death.
Eventually, after living in many rental homes, Jack and the Moores decided to buy a house themselves, and Jack’s brother Warnie moved in with them. They called it “the Kilns”, and that was where Jack lived for the rest of his life.
Jack’s position at Oxford allowed him room for new relationships. He became friends with influential men like J.R.R. Tolkien and Hugo Dyson. Eventually, these friendships collaborated into an informal literary group called the “Inklings”. Jack, along with several others, got together twice a week to discuss literary matters and read aloud works-in-the-making. Although the Inklings were originally a “literary group”, they also discussed much more. The Eagle and Child pub, where they often met, served as an environment where they could each improve their skills by feeding off each other’s logic and thinking. Friendship was very important to Jack.

The Inklings group was good for Jack in another way, though. As you remember, Jack had lost his faith many years before. He grew up in an average Christian home, but it was “all things dry and legalistic”¹ which Jack hated. When God supposedly didn’t answer his prayers for healing for his mother, he slowly drifted away. Over the years he went away from his original beliefs and became an all-out atheist.
Jack had previous experiences prompting him to become a Christian, but his believing friends and their influence on him gave him the final ‘push’ he needed. Some of the people that influenced him greatly were people he knew well, like J.R.R. Tolkien, and some were those he didn’t know, such as George MacDonald’s writing in his book Phantastes. He realized that nearly all his friends, whom he looked up to, definitely believed in God. At first Jack was reluctant to this change. But nevertheless, Jack felt God’s pull on his heart, and finally he accepted Christ while riding in the sidecar of Warnie’s motorcycle.
Jack began his writing career in the 1930’s. His new outlook on life affected his style of writing, and his books were much more successful than his books of poems published many years earlier. His first Christian novel, called A Pilgrim’s Regress, was published in 1933, and after that, others still followed. Some of his more popular books included: Allegory of Love, The Problem of Pain, Surprised by Joy, The Screwtape Letters, and The Chronicles of Narnia.
His only children’s series, The Chronicles of Narnia, consisted of seven books: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair, The Horse and His Boy, The Magician’s Nephew, and The Last Battle. They chronicle the magical country of Narnia from its beginning to end, and have become very popular across the world. Several experiences from his childhood & early years parallel into the series, as mentioned before. The series also illustrates instances in the Bible and everyday Christian life. Particularly, it reflects good triumphing over evil, and the sacrifices that the Lord makes for us. Many people have been changed by that series alone, and possibly even learned the truth of Christ.
Jack married Joy Davidman Gresham, an American single mother of two sons in 1956. Joy was the only woman Jack knew that was compatible with him and on the same level as he was intellectually. Shortly before they were married, they discovered that Joy had terminal bone cancer. She passed away four years later, and this was very devastating to Jack. As a result, he wrote the book A Grief Observed, which was a way for him to deal with his loss.
Jack lived the rest of his life in relative quiet. In 1961, Jack was diagnosed with inflammation of the kidneys, which became blood poisoning. He gradually became better, but fell ill in mid-July of 1963. He declined quickly and was diagnosed with end-stage renal failure. On November 22, 1963, one week before his 65th birthday, Jack collapsed in his bedroom, and a mere few minutes later, he went to be with his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Jack’s death was on the same day as President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, so it was almost entirely unnoticed by the press, which is the way he probably would have liked it. Jack was buried at Holy Trinity Church, in Headington, Oxford. He was missed by many, and to this day, Jack’s legacy lives on in many homes through his profound views, insightful writings, and overall example.

Bibliography

1. Wagner, Richard. C.S. Lewis and Narnia for Dummies
Indianapolis, IN. Wiley Publishing, Inc. 2005

2. Gresham, Douglas. Jack’s Life
Nashville TN. Broadman & Holman Publishers. 2005.

3. Wikipedia.org
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C.S._Lewis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joy_Gresham

4. Sibley, Brian. The Land of Narnia
New York, NY. Harper Collins Children’s books, a division of Harper Collins Publishers. 1989.

All citations are marked with the number of the book that the quote was taken from.

**** This entry contains spoilers about the movie Prince Caspian. I would not recommend reading this before you've seen the movie.****

Today, Prince Caspian officially arrives in theaters!!! (in America, at least.)

I received tickets last month for my birthday. So, earlier today, my brother, dad, and I attended the earliest morning showing of Prince Caspian. I was so excited! Yesterday I was going crazy knowing that around the same time tomorrow, I'd be at the theater!

I slept rather late, so when it was time to go we were pretty rushed. I just had time to put on my cape that my grandma made me for my birthday. It is a beautiful strawberry-red color, and so pretty! It's very Narnian, too. Hopefully I can post pictures soon. Anyway, I loved wearing it to the theater! I felt just like I was Lucy or Susan.

The drive to the theater felt like a long time. But, though I didn't know it then, the wait was definitely worth it.

If I had to pick one word to describe the movie, it would be AWESOME!! Although we were worried about how the movie turned out, I think we really underestimated the production team & Douglas Gresham. They did a wonderful job making everything flow together. It is especially incredible how well they made things work, because of how hard the plot must have been to adapt.

That to say, there were some down sides to the movie. Caspian & Susan do kiss; and there is some rivalry between Peter & Caspian. However, it is not as bad as we made it out to be. The Caspian/Peter rivalry shows how Peter has reacted to coming back to Narnia after hundreds of years. And although I do not particularly like the kiss, it is not *so* bad since it reflects Susan of the way she'll become in the Last Battle. The fact that Susan is the one that initiates the kiss is of some comfort. In the theater it was a bit hard for me to differentiate what was going on, because there are many scenes filmed in the dark.

It was definitely a LOT more intense than LWW. There is a ton of action; it almost never stops. There is also a scene where a hag, a were-wolf, and the White Witch appear, which was a bit frightening. There is a long battle at the end, as well. I would not recommend the movie for younger children.

The characters were quite memorable. I loved Reepicheep, although his voice wasn't *quite* what I would have picked. He was valiant and chivalrous, and funny. Trumpkin, Trufflehunter, Nikabrik, and all the rest were created beautifully. I must say I was mad at Peter more than once because of his pride issue, but overall he still proved to be loyal to Aslan in the end. Susan was more grown up than the last movie. She had a different attitude... she wasn't as cautious as she was in LWW. Edmund was definitely more of a hero in this movie. He came from being a bother to his siblings to helping them. Caspian was well cast; he pulled off the role well, although he was older than he was in the book. Miraz.... Can you say evil?! It's hard to believe that Sergio Castellitto is really a kind-hearted man; he pulled off being a villain so well. Dr. Cornelius was good, but not exactly how I'd pictured him. Queen Prunaprismia was good also, but I wish she'd had had red hair like in the book. And that brings us to Aslan.... He was bigger and better! His eyes showed such compassion and love. When the DVD comes out I am going to make a new template that features Aslan.

The movie has its quirks like all movies do, but Prince Caspian is a wonderful movie that I really enjoyed. I believe it sticks true to the spirit of Narnia and C.S. Lewis's original intentions. I definitely will be seeing this movie again, and I encourage you to see it too.