A powerful reflection and a chance to hear CS Lewis’s voice
Seven times John introduces us to Jesus as the great ‘I am’ of Hebrew revelation, with each description giving us further insight into who Jesus really is.
He is the Bread of Life, (John 6:35) who satisfies our deepest spiritual hunger;
He is the Light of the World, (John 8:12) who guides us step by step.
He is the Door of the Sheep, (John 10:7) who alone provides entry into God’s eternal family;
He is the Good Shepherd (John 10:11) who Jesus protects and cares for His followers.
He is the Resurrection and the Life (John 11:25) who shares His risen life with us past physical death.
He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, (John 14:6) who is the sole true path to God,
as well as the Vine, (John 15:1) into whom we have been grafted.
Most of us will be familiar with Brother Lawrence’s concept of practising the presence of God (however imperfectly we practise it!) as well as with the ‘Footprints in the Sand’ poster-poem, that describes how the Lord Jesus carries us during the most difficult times in our life. Here is a precious epigram that has also become well known around the world.
Helen Mallicoat, a prolific American author, received this one night in the wee hours, and took it as coming straight from God. It is an always true and always timely reminder that we have an open invitation to live with and for Jesus moment by moment, who is with us minute-by-minute, in the here and now. It reminds us, too, that even the Lord cannot give us today the grace that we will be in need of tomorrow: He sends it as we seek Him from day to day.
May these words bless and refresh you!”
I AM
I was regretting the past
and fearing the future, when suddenly my Lord was speaking:
“My name is I Am.”
He paused. I waited. He continued:
“When you live in the past
with its mistakes and regrets,
it is hard. I am not there.
My name is not I WAS.
When you live in the future,
with its problems and fears,
it is hard. I am not there.
My name is not I WILL BE.
When you live in this moment,
It is not hard. I am here.
My name is I AM
A voice that was once well known
Here’s a question for a pub quiz. Whose was the second most recognisable voice on British radio during the Second World War? No prizes for guessing that Sir Winston Churchill was the best known – but who came second? The King? Their favourite newsreader? ‘Lord Haw Haw’, that horrendous propagandist who broadcast discouraging messages to the British on behalf of Berlin? The answer may come as something of a surprise: it was CS Lewis, as the result of the twenty-five talks that he gave on apologetics, which he later wrote up as Mere Christianity.
Here’s a chance to hear the voice of a man whose writings you are almost sure to have read in the past.
How times have changed! The BBC granted Lewis this splendid platform as a means of maintaining hope in the nation, as well as teaching morality. When the war was over, Sir Winston wanted to award Lewis a royal honour, but he was not prepared to accept that.
I had never heard his voice before coming across this gem of a short talk. His starting point tallies with the above theme: how is God able in a split moment of time to cope with hearing millions of voices calling out to Him, often with completely contradictory concerns and requests? Shades of Bruce Almighty, and the chaos confused by Bruce trying to say YES to all requests made of him.
The answer lies in God being outside of time as we regularly measure and understand it, so that every time is present time with Him. Because He does not listen ‘sequentially,’ a billion prayers take no “time.” Heaven has no ‘band-width shortage; God experiences everything in an eternal “now.” God is able to give His complete attention to each person, and His number is ever engaged.
I had a tiny sense of that on the night before the first Gulf War broke out, when the Lord gave me a vivid impression of how deeply grieved He was by the events of the Kristalnacht in November 1938, which greatly intensified the horrendous persecution of Jews in countries occupied by Nazi Germany.
The Lord still feels the pain of those shattered windows and broken lives, even as He warned me that one man’s intransigence now (Saddam Hussein) would cause the loss of thousands of lives. One can multiply such examples endlessly in positive ways, too, because the prayers and witness of godly men and women through the centuries live on before His throne. Many of us will have the joy one day of discovering faithful praying members of our families who we may never even have heard of.
Lewis makes it simple by likening Jesus’ effect on us to salt, which can bring out the best ‘flavour’ of our true self in Him as new creatures in Christ. It is only by letting go of ourselves and embracing who He is that we find our truest selves.
Enjoy this gem! In the light of the Lord saying ‘I am,’ how can we respond but by saying, ‘Lord You are . . . ‘ – and pray on from there!
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