BYU Education Week Day Two

Education Week went well yesterday. It was so busy I didn't even have time to post about it. The devotion was given by Elder Tad Callister and was fantastic. Again if you want to be part of Education Week and are not able to be here, get on BYU Speeches as soon as his talk is available and read it. He spoke about our divine nature and what that means and how it separates us from other religious ideals. The main point was that as spirit children of God we have inherited godly characteristics that we need to be aware of and develop. It was encouraging and uplifting and informative!

Since I said the prayer at the devotional I was invited to a small luncheon afterward. Elder Callister and his wife were there, President Samuelson and his wife, as well as several vice presidents of the University. It was fun to mingle and chat and relax with them.

After that I taught my two classes. First I taught "'Come What May, and Love It' But How?" and right after that I taught The Life of C. S. Lewis. Elder Callister had quoted from Lewis four times in his talk and that served as a wonderful introduction to my class which was so full they needed to open up two overflow rooms. All that energy makes teaching all the more fun and so I had a great time that hour talking about one of my mentors. I can't wait to meet him some day!

The energy, love, happiness, joy, and fun are abounding and I hope in some small way to share that with you. Enjoy!

Being Succored

I wanted to share today one of my favorite quotes from C. S. Lewis: 

“No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. . . . You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness — they have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means — the only complete realist.”

On days when I’m feeling overwhelmed, I remember this quote and it reminds me not only that I am not alone, but that my Savior, who walks with me through life, knows exactly what I am feeling not because He has studied it or learned about it but because He has experienced it. AND that means He knows how to help me. He has conquered whatever I am battling against and He knows how to withstand it! 

As Paul says, “For in that [Jesus Christ] himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted” (Hebrews 2:18). Succor mean to “run under” which gives me the mental image of my Savior holding me aloft in order to help me through my trials, temptations, and battles.

Oh, how grateful I am for a Savior!

Last Day

Today I do the last Truth class--the one about joy and the Savior and His love. You all know that listening to those things makes you feel good but preparing them and teaching them makes you feel even better. I've had a wonderful morning reading and pondering and preparing.

In the Lewis class I'm teaching the Chronicles of Narnia--again the preparation has been wonderful but at the same time frustrating. How do you capture the essence of the Chronicles in 55 minutes? I'm struggling with what to put in and what to leave out. I guess I can only hope to instill in people a desire to read the books for themselves so they can experience it.

Lewis came under a lot of criticism for what some claimed was a degrading thing--writing for children. But I love how he defended himself. He said, "Critics who treat adult as a term of approval instead of a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. … When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.” 

I love it! The child in me (the child I embrace with whole-hardheartedness) loves it! The Chronicles are wonderful reading when a child, but no child can fully comprehend the eternal truths hidden in the symbols and metaphors. The books are for adults as well as for children. 

If you haven't read them, you should.

BYU Education Week is Coming

Brigham Young University Education Week is fast approaching (August 15-19). This year I am teaching three classes and am very excited about it. On Monday I will be teaching a new two hour class on the subject of “Faith Works by Words.” I’ve been doing the research on the relationship of words and faith for the past two years and this will be the first time I’ve shared what I’ve been learning. They also asked me to do the lecture on the “Life of C. S. Lewis” on Monday afternoon.

During the Tuesday to Friday classes I will be teaching “'Come What May and Love It'--But How?” which are the Living in Truth principles, and “The Life and Writings of C. S. Lewis.” On Tues. the Lewis class will repeat the Monday lecture on the life of Lewis and the following days I’ll do classes on the fiction, non-fiction, and finally the Chronicles of Narnia.

It is going to be a fun week and I hope to see you there!

There's Help!

I’m preparing to teach a series of classes on C. S. Lewis again this year for BYU Education Week. This means I’m re-reading many of his books and marveling once more at his wisdom. This morning I read in Mere Christianity, “When a man is getting better, he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still left in him. When a man is getting worse, he understands his own badness less and less. A moderately bad man knows he is not very good: A thoroughly bad man thinks he is all right . . . . Good people know about both good and evil: bad people do not know about either.”


This is so true. As we grow closer and closer to the Savior our understanding expands and we realize how far we are from where we want to be. The amazing thing is that this realization while uncomfortable doesn’t sink us into despair or bog us down with discouragement. Instead we sorrow for what we have done wrong, we wish to be better, but we strive all the harder for righteousness because we understand that Someone is helping us. We are not in this alone!

It is that awareness that we are and will be helped along the path of righteousness that brings peace into our lives. And oh, what a wonderful blessing that is!

The Last Day

It's the last day of Education Week. In ways that is a relief and in others a disappointment. My cold has moved to my chest and I need rest, but I will miss the wonderful spirit that exists during Education Week.

I've had so much fun with the Lewis class, I thought I'd share with you just a snippet of why. First of all, I am mathematically challenged, but so was Lewis. He failed the math part of his entrance exams to Oxford and would not have gotten into Oxford if it had not been for the war. (He was an officer and after the war all veterans were allowed admittance without passing exams!) Concerning his lack of math skills, Lewis later wrote, "I could never have gone far in any science because on the path of every science the lion Mathematics lies in wait for you.” Oh yes, I've seen the jaws of that lion!

The other thing I love is Lewis' humor. He loved animals, especially dogs, and at one point he described his dog Tim, by saying he “was the most undisciplined, unaccomplished, and dissipated-looking creature that ever went on four legs. He never exactly obeyed you; he sometimes agreed with you."

But most of all I love Lewis because he holds a mirror up to my face and allows me to see things about myself I've never seen before--necessary things that will help me return to my Father in Heaven. He's facilitated some of the miracles in my life.

Third Day at Education Week

Last night I couldn't go to sleep. I'd start to doze off and then jerk awake thinking, "I forgot to tell them this about Lewis." I'd finally drift back to sleep and again jerk awake, "Oh, I didn't tell them this, and it is so important." And on and on it went for what seemed like hours. All I thought about all night is what I left out! But 55 minutes is not long enough to include everything. Hopefully the point came across that despite the adversity and trials, Lewis was a man who lived in Truth. He exemplified it every moment he lived.

Today I'm talking about the non-fiction of C. S. Lewis in the morning and the Truth Tools in the afternoon. In the Lewis class we're going to talk about Mere Christianity, Miracles, and The Problem of Pain. I have a feeling I'm not going to get much of the Problem of Pain covered, and tonight my sleep is going to be a problem of pain as I recall all I didn't explain. But then, maybe a miracle will happen and we will be able to get all of my mere notes covered in the 55 minutes.

Once again, I wish you were all here. It is amazing to be surrounded by so many loving, caring, kind people all seeking to learn and grow. The very air rings with their joy!

Lessons From Lewis

Despite the time constraints and the stress, I am enjoying my study of C. S. Lewis. I study and the thoughts ring through me all day long giving a lilting lift to my work and play. For example, yesterday I read from his book Miracles, “In science we have been reading only the notes to a poem; in Christianity we find the poem itself” (p. 212) and I found myself hearing Christianity as a poem with rhyme and rhythm and language that “blows the top off the mind.”From that vantage point, I saw religion in a new light that grew into sheer delight.

Another thing I read yesterday explains the importance and the benefits of living in Truth. Lewis talks about the war between nature and spirit, or as we usually say the Natural Human and the Spiritual Human. “Nature by dominating spirit wrecks all spiritual activities; spirit by dominating Nature confirms and improves natural activities” (p. 205). . . “The emotions do not become weak or jaded by being organized in the service of a moral will—indeed they grow richer and stronger as a beard is strengthened by being shaved or a river is deepened by being banked” (p. 206).

I like the wording, “organized in the service of a moral will.” That is exactly what the Truth Tools are designed to help us do—discipline and organize our emotions so that they work for us instead of against us. Oh, how I love the wisdom of Lewis!

C. S. Lewis on Living in Truth

This year I’m teaching a class at BYU Education Week on C. S. Lewis. I’ve always loved Lewis, have taken several classes on him, and over the years read much of what he has written. So now I am rereading and studying his life in more depth and I am loving every minute of it.

I’ve been surprised by a few things. For example, it’s been years since I read Mere Christianity and in rereading it I’ve found a few things that coincide with what I’ve discovered about Living in Truth. I never notice them before. One thing Lewis says is, “We have to take reality as it comes to us; there is no good jabbering about what it ought to be like or what we should have expected it to be like” (P. 63). This sounds a lot like Elder Wirthlin’s statement, “Come what may” only Elder Wirthlin adds “and love it.” Being old and constructed of habit, I still struggle with this even though I know with all my heart it is true. Slowly I’m learning to throw out the “oughts,” “shoulds” and “shouldn’ts”. It takes a lot of effort, but I’m finding it so worth it.

In another place Lewis describes what a truly Christian society would be like: “It is to be a cheerful society: full of singing and rejoicing , and regarding worry or anxiety as wrong.” (p. 80). Again, I’ve got a lifetime of habits to overcome; worry and anxiety accomplish nothing. They are unnecessary pain and as we get rid of them, we find joy.

I’m still reading Lewis and if I find more comments on Living in Truth I'll let you know. It is fun to find that an ”old friend” whom I’ve admired for years agrees with me!