Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Lewis' Logic


As a prepper, it seems that more often than not, I am called on to defend my preparedness position.  Whether it is a fellow Christian questioning my faith or just some curious soul baffled by the notion that I think there may come a time when electricity, food or medical care may not available, I have to be ready with an answer.  I have written numerous blog posts defending our lifestyle and even a post, Preparedness Apologetics, which biblically exhorts readiness.  But still there are skeptics.

As I pondered the skeptics, I thought of C.S. Lewis.  Years ago, I read a little volume written by Mr. Lewis entitled "Mere Christianity".  It was a wonderful book, filled with wisdom, but one story, in particular, stuck with me like a burr.  The story of which I speak told the tale of Mr. Lewis engrossed in a conversation with a rather stubborn non-believer.  Mr. Lewis worked his way through all of the standard pro-Christ arguments, to no avail.  The non-believer was having none of it - he was convinced that there was no greater point to life than living for himself.  He was certain that death was final.  Lights out.  Darkness.  Nothing.  Why, he questioned, would you bother burdening yourself with "right and wrong" and "good and bad", when, in the end, it didn't matter anyway?  Why would you struggle and suffer to serve a god you couldn't see and touch, that you couldn't KNOW was really there, when you could take the path of least resistance and still have the same end result?  Why, indeed.

C.S. Lewis, listening to this mans reasoning, was struck with a logic so simple that it was perfect.  He reasoned that if this man was correct in his conviction that life was nothing more than a temporary adventure into conscious thought which concluded with drawing your final breath, then he (C.S. Lewis) was covered - he would be O.K.  He concluded that because he served God, his life had been well lived.  He had lived with meaning and purpose, discipline and conviction.  He had helped the poor and treated others kindly.  He had lived with joy.  If life was nothing more than an adventure on the road to death - he would have made the most of it.  And in the end, he would be fine.

If, however, he (C.S. Lewis) was right, and there was one true God and Jesus Christ was His son, he would still be fine.  He would have served his Lord well, he would have finished the race and he would hear the words "Well done my good and faithful servant".  The stiff, necked unbeliever sitting next to him, however, would not be O.K.  He would be cast into eternal damnation, separated forever from the God who created him.  There would be no second chance, no do-over.  There would be nothing but fire.

The same logic applies to life as a prepper.  What if TEOTWAWKI never happens?  What if the lights stay on and food is always readily available?  Will I have lived my life burdened by overwhelming foreboding?  Heaven forbid!  I will have gained wisdom, skill and contentment.  I will have served my family.  I will have cared for my neighbors.  My children will be disciplined and creative.  They will have marketable skills - medical, technical, organizational, food preparation, high density storage, mechanical, sewing - the list goes on.  Our family will have played together, laughed together and pulled together.  If nothing ever happens, we will be O.K.

But, what if something does happen?  If you haven't prepared, what will you do?  If the lights go out, will you be O.K.?  If you can't find a doctor or a dentist, will you know what to do?  Can you provide food for your family and the other people that will depend upon you?  If the world as you know it ends tomorrow, will you be O.K.?  I will.

And, there you have it - the logic of C.S. Lewis.  Preparing for tomorrow, whether you are preparing your soul for eternity or your larder for TEOTWAWKI, is the wise choice.  When the end of the world comes, whether the grid goes down or I draw my last breath, I will be O.K.  Will you?

17 comments:

  1. Enola,

    I will. Whatever God brings into our future, I will be OK.
    Thanks be to Him!

    notutopia

    ReplyDelete
  2. We are PREPARED to be wrong.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I will! I am more prepared than the vast majority of our population, but not near as well prepared as I hope to be, given a few more years to work on it. But I will do the best that I can for my family with the skills and goods that I have, and our precious Lord is in charge of the rest. He'll do much better than I ever can! And a wonderful Thanksgiving to you and your family, Enola Gay!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Just ordered your book. I would be SO excited if you......signed it? (smile) I understand if you don't feel like it is necessary.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Whether the grid goes down or I draw my last breath, am I prepared? I don't know.

    I've got some beans, bullets, bandaids so I guess I'll be OK for awhile, until I'm overwhelmed by zombies. Or my supplies run out. But I'm not so sure about my soul.

    I've repented and work at being a better Christian, but I don't know if I'm doing it right. I pray for guidance, but maybe I'm too deaf to hear and too blind to see.

    Preparing is not as easy as I originally thought, whether for the grid going down or for my soul. This prepping stuff is hard work!

    NoCal Gal

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thomas Aquinus the philosopher and Catholic Saint said' "If we can come up with the concept of a God, therefore there must be a God"

    In prepping/survival, I guess a simular mantra could apply. If we can come up with a mass collapse scenario then it could happen.

    Anyone who questions why I do the things I do for something that may never happen I mention the Japan Earthquake, Indonesian Sunami, Mount Saint Helens in 1980, Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Ivan, Sars pandemic scare, Yellow fever of 1918, Yugoslavian civil war, Somalian civil war and famine, Dharfor, Argentina's financil collapse in 1998. Russian financil collapse of early 1990's.

    Any questions?

    That usually makes people think. (I know I left out a whole bunch of other bad things that did happen, but I think I got some of the big name ones)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Captain Crunch, well said! Well said!

    ReplyDelete
  8. To: Captain Crunch,
    After Haiti's disaster, I read a story in our newspaper how a local nurse flew down to help out. She was assigned to a tent hospital and the people LOVED to be in the hospital because not only were they well cared for, they received FOOD! Upon their release, they were on their own.

    She explained in the newspaper how the adults would grind up rocks to feed to the children so they would have something in their little stomach.

    Sometimes our family gets critical of our stock. Do we have too much Progresso Soup with its soy, too many preservatives in that instant meal? What if we don't like buckwheat and now we're stuck with HOW MANY pounds of it?

    And then we cut ourselves some slack and say, "At least it's not ground rock!"

    Those of us who get ready are not crazy (as evidenced by your historical list). Let us keep doing what we're doing (and always striving to improve).

    I agree with your comments.

    ReplyDelete
  9. nocal gal,
    Just like being a better prepper you read blogs and try to find like-minded people, growing after repentance works better when you find and hang out with like-minded Christians. You can feel secure in your faith if you've made that decision by praying for peace. Find a book on Bible promises and claim them for your own. One thing to remember regarding "prepping for your soul" is that Jesus has done the work and you just trust in him.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Again, I agree with Captain Crunch-it doesn'
    t have to be a global collapse, nuclear war,alien invasion or zombie apocalypse-it can be your everyday natural disaster,and you'd best be prepared. Remember how well FEMA did after Katrina? You're much better off assuming there will be little or no outside help, and go from there. Better to have the things you need than not.

    ReplyDelete
  11. But here is what YOU need to know:

    1. It's later then you think.

    2. Food will be worth more then money in the future.

    3. Someone you know intends to either sponge off you or take what you have when things get tough.

    4. Someone you don't know intends to either sponge off you or take what you have when things get tough.

    5. By the time it becomes obvious to everyone it will be too late to prepare.

    6. If you don't prepare then you are the one planning on sponging off someone you know or to take what they have when things get tough.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Also known as Pascals Wager.

    ReplyDelete
  13. i am ready and prepared to live and i am ready and prepared for death as well. good things and bad things happen in the blink of an eye.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Using my limited resources the best I can
    Trusting in the Lord for the rest.
    So yes, I will.
    Steve

    ReplyDelete
  15. Many years ago,while preping for "Y2K",I bumped up against my limitations and had to face the reality that I would never be prepared "enough" for all the unknowns, regardless of my best efforts.In mentally working through that,God showed me that He gives us the responsibility to do what He has enabled us to do in the here and now.Then HE does the rest as things play out and we must trust Him with that. Little did I know that our "Y2K" would come in the form of death rather than societal breakdown. The physical"preps" we had made as a couple were now my security as a suddenly single parent. Oh, how greatful I was (and still am) for those!
    And the "spiritual preps" I had made prior to the "Y2K thing that never happened" carried me through "the end of my world" that DID happen. And I do mean CARRIED. God carried me in His strong arms just as surely as I carried my baby on my hip when she was not yet able to walk.
    I had done what God prompted me to do in preping for Y2K. He let me see my inability in order to prepare me for what I couldnt do--the thing I never imagined. Then He was faithful and trustworthy, just as He said.
    Coming to that place of complete trust in God is the most important prep you will make, because hard things WILL happen, one way or another, in all our lives and He alone can carry you through it.

    ReplyDelete
  16. To NoCal Gal?
    Re:"I've repented and work at being a better Christian, but I don't know if I'm doing it right. I pray for guidance, but maybe I'm too deaf to hear and too blind to see"

    I appreciate your honesty and pray my feeble attempt here helps somewhat.
    We Christians think sin or good is what we DO. In reality it is what we ARE.
    It was explained to me this way...
    If you were to exchange "human" for "sinner" in all those key scripture verses, you'd come to see it's not what we DO but what we ARE that's the problem. Christ died because we are "humans" and there is nothing we can do(or not do) to not be "humans". We must trust(believe) that Christ did what needed to be done(on the cross) to rectify that problem. Once we understand that- we can ask to recieve His Holy Spirit-- which means that while we are still human we are now also something more.
    If we allow the Spirit to "have us"-- HE is able to do good works "through us ".It's HE not WE that does the work--we just willingly give ourselves to him to be used by him(since He is not here with hands and feet to do it himself).If we come to see that we are not our own--but bought with a price-- it takes the work out of it. No human can "do it right" but whatever GOD does through us is always right. God's greatest pleasure comes not from what we DO(or dont do) but what we ARE...His. Rest in that and let Him work.

    ReplyDelete
  17. And God's greatest longing is for His children to KNOW Him intimately, as He knows us. We are to be imitators of His precious Son Jesus Christ as His word tells us. The best way to KNOW Him intimately is to STUDY His word...not merely read it but devour it, feed on it with Holy Spirit teaching and leading. Then you will never wonder again if you are doing anything roght or wrong - you will know for certain.


    In addition, my Y2K preps - which I see now was a rehearsal for what is already here for many and yet to come for many more, helped me in my time of need when I lost my job in the early 2000's. I'd already purchased about 2 years worth of toilet paper, canned up enough food for a large size army and had plenty of firewood to keep warm.

    I'd also made several notebooks copied from internet blogs, of skills like canning recipes, cooking with dehydrated/freeze dried foods, how to find water when there is none, survival skills, communication, and much more. These notebooks are coming in handy now.

    Keeping notebooks, articles and written journals of these times will even be more valuable in the very near future as the times become more disasterous. They will be a guide for help, including proper mental health and attitudes when we know what to do if a problem arises instead of panicking or becoming depressed. They will be a record of this time in our history for future generations to learn from as are the stories, writings, recipes and personal experiences of those who lived during the Great Depression.

    They will be valuable for re-starting the next thing to come - if Jesus tarries!

    ReplyDelete