The Solid Facts About Living In Truth

There is something in C. S. Lewis’ book The Great Divorce that I have been pondering all week. In this book a bus load of people leave Hell for an excursion to an interim place just before Heaven. If they like, they may stay and make their way to Heaven. But if they don’t like, they may get back on the bus and go back to Hell. All but one of the passengers chooses to go back.

The thing I’ve been pondering is that the interim place is a very substantial place. Everything is hard and durable—the grass doesn’t bend when one of the passengers steps on it; instead it is spiky and hard so it hurts to walk on it. Everything in that place is solid and heavy, so that in the metaphor the way to prepare for Heaven is to make yourself tangible and solid so you can walk to the mountains where Heaven is. I love the symbolism in that idea.

In the metaphor, when we follow God, we are making ourselves solid, more tangible. When we follow the adversary we are dissipating, dissolving, liquefying, or melting away. It helps me to do what is right by remembering that image. I want to be solid and firm. I want to be made of substance not fluff. I want to be strong and not pliable. This is what I’ve been pondering. The solidness, firmness, substance and strength are what come to us when we Live in Truth.

That is one of the surprises Living in Truth had for me. The solidness grows in you as you Live in Truth in ways that are tangible. You feel it. You know it even if you can’t explain it. It is real, not metaphorical, and it is wonderful!