Finding good in bad- Heidi Naylor

One of the most striking characteristics of C.S. Lewis that I came to see through reading Surprised By Joy was his capacity to see the good in bad situations. As a kid, coming home from boarding school (after his mother’s death) he found his father becoming less and less of a father; he was withdrawn and often too focused on his own pain to be a part of his sons’ life. But, in recalling these times on holiday, Lewis explained that this was the time in which he and his brother drew closer: “We were coming, my brother and I, to rely more exclusively on each other for all that made life bearable; to have confidence only in each other” (19).

At Oldie’s, Lewis found this same phenomenon to also exist. The awful times at school drew him and his classmates together; the schoolboys united against their common enemy. As he states, “To this day the vision of the world which comes most naturally to me is one in which ‘we too’ or ‘we few’ (and in a sense ‘we happy few’) stand together against something stronger and larger” (32). Not only did Lewis gain a sense of togetherness from his time at Oldie’s, he was even able to admit that it was there he learned to reason and did in fact gain some good geometry lessons.

Taking all of this one step further, Lewis believed that the times at this boarding school helped him later in his Christian life: “Life at vile boarding school is in this way a good preparation for the Christian life, that it teaches one to live by hope” (36). At the beginning of a term, Lewis would look forward to the time he went home with his brother, but he admitted to them seeming very far off; it seemed as hard to realize them as it does to realize heaven. Weeks began to shrink into smaller amounts of time, and the “supernatural bliss” of the last day finally appeared. This last day was such a delight that “tingled down the spine and troubled the belly and at moments went near to stopping the breath” (36).

Reading Lewis describe his terrible experiences as such made me realize how accepting he was of circumstances that shaped who he was. He saw the good in each situation, and believed himself better for it all: “In all seriousness I think that the life of faith is easier to me because of these memories… we have learned not to take present thins at their face value” (37).