GIVING BIRTH TO A NEW FAITH

I remember it like it was yesterday. There I was, a young skeptic, sitting on the porch of an oceanfront hotel in the summer of 1993, reading C. S. Lewis' "Mere Christianity," which I'd picked up at a used bookstore down the street. God was working in my life, and Lewis, the scholar-turned-Christian, appealed to me. I should also say that reading Lewis was a lot easier than trying to have a discussion with the evangelists near our hotel who held placards with vivid pictures of sinners burning in the fires of Hell.

When I got to Lewis' famous "poached egg" section, goosebumps formed on my arms, and I remember thinking, "This Lewis guy may be on to something." (I'd later learn that many people before and since have had similar reactions to "Mere Christianity.") On that hot summer day, I somehow knew that Lewis was playing the role of a midwife, helping me give birth to a new faith in the risen Christ.

For all his brilliance, though, I recognized that Lewis was simply delivering a message. And it was the message -- that Jesus, the Son of God, died on the cross and rose again on the third day for my sins -- that transformed my life. Like many other children of the Enlightenment, I had been blind to both the supernatural and my sinful nature. But as I read Lewis, my doubts melted and my heart warmed to the possibility that maybe, just maybe, I needed to reevaluate this Jesus fellow and the claims He made.

-- Matt Donnelly, Christianity Online


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