A Grand Adventure

There is a reason why C.S. Lewis is one of my favorite writers…. The man knew how to write! Whether it was one of his deep theological classics, such as Mere Christianity, or a rollicking adventure in Narnia, it’s hard to put down one of his books.

I just finished reading The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which is the third book in the Chronicles of Narnia series. In this story, Edmund, Lucy, and their cousin Eustace are on a quest to help King Caspian find the seven friends of his father who had been sent off to explore the unknown Eastern Seas. It was a grand adventure for all; all that is except for Eustace. He was not interested in quests, nor was he happy to have fallen through a picture hanging on the wall onto a ship. To make matters worse, he soon found himself transformed into a dragon after stumbling into its lair and slipping on a bracelet.

Oddly enough, becoming a dragon was exactly what Eustace needed. You see, he was a very selfish boy, who never thought of anyone other than himself. However, on finding himself a dragon, Eustace began to ponder if he had always been as nice as he assumed he was, which then took him to this next thought: Were the others as bad as he had believed them to be?

Eustace then decided to try a different way, and soon his companions began to see that being a dragon rather improved his character. He was anxious to help when before he thought of only himself, but there was a problem. Soon they would leave the island and there was no way to fit a dragon onto the Dawn Treader. What would become of their dragon/friend when they had to set sail?

The answer came in an unexpected way. Aslan the lion, who Lewis used as a Christ-like figure in the series, visited Eustace and led him to a pool of water. Eustace longed to jump into the cool, clear water but he knew that he first needed to shed his skin. Eustace scratched off layer after layer, but as much as he tried, he could never get to the bottom - there was always another layer.  Finally, Aslan asked if Eustace would allow him to do it, to take off the skin that was “hard and rough and wrinkled and scaly.”

It was then that I had an “ah-ha” moment. Like Eustace, we too cannot shed our old selves. No matter how hard we try, we cannot cleanse our own souls. Only Jesus can do that, and this this is what Paul meant when he wrote: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

Christ died for each one of us, and when we come to know him as our Savior, our old self dies too. The ugly, selfish, prideful person is gone, and in its place stands a new person – a new creation! We are washed clean by the blood of the Lamb (Revelation 22:14), but it all begins with God. Our redemption happens because God so loved the world that he sent his only son, “so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16).

God is calling his wandering and estranged children to come home where love is waiting for them. We find forgiveness with our Father through Christ; however, Lewis reminds us of another truth…. The process can hurt.

Yes, it can hurt our selfish souls to let go of the sins that we have come to depend on and enjoy, if we want to be honest. Yet we see that Eustace didn’t pull back. He let Aslan do the work because he had done the math, and he knew that what was coming – that cool, fresh water - was so much better than anything his old life offered.

But like Eustace, we all have a decision to make. We hear God’s call to come home. We want that cool, refreshing water, but in our warped thinking, our math can go wrong. We want to keep our options open, so we try and put one foot in the water, while keeping one foot in the world. Or we think that we have to do all the work. We believe that God is not going to accept us as we are; therefore, we must get our lives straighten out and looking pretty before we can ever think about going to church. Or we believe there is any number of ways to find God but listen again the words of Jesus: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)

Friends, we cannot earn salvation through good works. There is only one way, and that way is Jesus Christ. But the world is doing everything it can to convince us otherwise. Case in point, a new show on Hulu called Chad Powers.

Now I can’t say that I recommend the series because the language is questionable along with the moral values; however, the overarching storyline caught my attention because it parallels, to me, the character of Eustace in the Dawn Treader.

In this show, a down and out football player, Russ Holliday, tries to get a second chance in college ball. Using prosthetics and a wig, he transforms himself into Chad Powers to join a college football team in Georgia. Now the series is not done yet, so I’m not sure how they are going to wrap it up. However, we already see Russ realizing that to pull off his deception, Chad has to be a different person than he is. Chad must be a person who is kind and cares about others; something that Russ wasn’t.

What Hollywood wants us to believe is that you can do this on your own, with just a little help from your trusted sidekick. It’s a lovely thought, but as we have discussed, it just doesn’t work. Instead of turning to Christ and allowing him to take off his old skin, Russ just tries to cover his up. As much as he tries though, the old keeps showing through and getting him into trouble. 

In his book, Practicing the Way, John Mark Comer wrote:

We who got ourselves into this mess can’t get ourselves out. We’re too broken to put ourselves back together. Too lost to find ourselves. When we unmask the human façade of self-delusion, we realize just how utterly unlike Christ we are in the deepest recesses of our hearts. We are forced to confront our true nature – how warped and wounded we really are. In that tender place, we all realize, I can’t self-save, “Physician, heal thyself” is a strategy doomed to fail. We need help, power, from beyond us. We need grace.

We need to be like Eustace and realize just how “not nice” we really are. We then need to be willing to let Jesus circumcise our hearts and cut out all the ugly things that separate us from God. However, we must remember that it can be a slow process because old habits die hard. I wish I could say that the moment we accept Christ we will never think or do or say anything that is contrary to the Spirit ever again, but God didn’t do it that way. We are all on this journey of sanctification together; therefore….

• We need to patient with one another.

• And bear with one another.

• And remember just how much we have been forgiven.

Because when we do, we will be more willing to extend grace to each other. Therefore, each and every day we need to practice doing the things that Jesus did, and we must stop listening to the lies Satan is whispering. We really are new creations and it’s time to start acting like it.

Amen, and so be it!  Lisa

Discussion Questions

Old habits do, indeed, die hard. What has been one of the hardest things for you to stop doing? What do you when that old habit resurfaces?

How can you live your life in a way that reflects you are a new creation in Christ?

How does the reality of being on this grand adventure with God inspire you?