Your Story Hour

Aunt Nikki: Hey everybody, come on! Your story hour's on! Welcome to Your Story Hour. I’m Aunt Nikki.

Uncle Jon: And I’m Uncle Jon, and we’re here to bring you today’s inspiring story.

Aunt Nikki: Hello everyone. We're so glad to be with you today. Uncle Jon, what can you tell us about today's story?

Uncle Jon: Well, it’s about C.S. Lewis. If you’re not familiar with that name, nearly everyone has heard of some of his writings, like The Chronicles of Narnia.

Aunt Nikki: Oh yes, stories like The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Nobody can forget Reepicheep the Brave Mouse or Aslan the Noble Lion King.

Uncle Jon: Aunt Nikki, did you know that for a long time, C.S. Lewis didn’t even believe in God?

Aunt Nikki: Really?

Uncle Jon: Mm-hmm. And that’s what our story is all about. But before we get started, I want you to know that even though the C.S. part of his name stands for Clive Staples, everyone called him Jack, a name he gave himself when he was just four years old. So Jack is the name we’ll use in this story we call C.S. Lewis' Journey to Jesus.

Guest (Male): Jack Lewis grew up in Belfast, Ireland, in a house overlooking the hills and the sea. In those days, the shipyards of Belfast built enormous ships like the Oceanic and Titanic, and Jack and his big brother Warnie could look out and watch them taking shape.

Jack’s father was a lawyer, and his mother was a mathematician. Their house was full of books, and the brothers loved the Irish folk tales their nurse Lizzie told them, one of which got them in trouble one day.

Jack: It stopped raining! Oh, look at the rainbow, Jack!

Warnie: Whoa, come on, Jack, let's go outside. I don't see the rainbow anymore.

Jack: But it was here, just over the garden. Remember what Nurse Lizzie said?

Warnie: About the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow?

Jack: Uh-huh. That means it’s right here! We’ve got to dig and find it, Jack.

Warnie: But if we make a hole, Papa will be mad.

Jack: Not when we find the gold! Go get a shovel.

Guest (Male): The boys dug and they dug and they dug until...

Mother: Warnie, Jacksy, time to wash up for dinner.

Jack: Coming, Mama!

Mother: Boys, you're filthy! Get out of those grubby clothes and wash up.

Warnie: Yes, Mama.

Guest (Male): Once they had washed all the mud from under their fingernails, Jack and Warnie sat down for dinner. Moments later, they heard their father's angry shouts.

Father: Boys!

Mother: What's wrong, dear?

Father: These rascals dug a trap and caught me good! Look, I'm covered in mud, and I nearly broke my briefcase.

Jack: It wasn't a trap, Papa. We were digging for gold.

Father: What?

Jack: You know, Papa, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Father: What kind of a fool do you think I am to believe in such fairy tales?

Jack: But it's true, Papa. Lizzie told us.

Father: Boys, that's just a fairy tale. There's no gold in our garden.

Guest (Male): Jack and Warnie were punished for digging the hole, but it didn't keep them from escaping to the world of make-believe. The brothers spent many happy hours in their playroom in the attic, creating fantastical worlds populated by trains and ships and talking animals. When their cousins came to visit, Jack enthralled them with tales of faraway kingdoms, epic battles, and rabbits dressed in shining armor.

Guest (Female): Jack, you didn't finish the story last time about the cat and the castle.

Guest (Female): Oh, do tell us more. Did the rabbits win the battle?

Jack: Here, climb into the wardrobe and I'll tell you what happened.

Guest (Female): Your mother's fur coat feels so soft.

Jack: Is it really a coat, or is it the back of a really hungry cat?

Guest (Male): When he wasn't entertaining his cousins, Jack loved to look out the window at the distant Castlereagh Hills.

Jack: Warnie, how far away are those hills?

Warnie: I don't know, maybe 20 miles.

Jack: They're so pretty right before sunset.

Warnie: Yeah, green and alive, like I could just reach out and touch them.

Jack: But it would take a hundred years to walk that far.

Guest (Male): When Warnie went off to boarding school in England, Jack was all alone in their big attic playroom. And then one day, his father shared some very sad news.

Father: Jack, your mother has a tumor. She's going to need an operation.

Guest (Male): Sadly, the surgery wasn't able to save Jack's mother. She died when he was just nine years old.

Father: Jack, now that your mother's gone, I'm going to have you join Warnie at boarding school in England.

Guest (Male): Jack, devastated by the loss of his mother, did not enjoy the boarding school. Students were frequently mistreated by the cruel schoolmaster, and before long, the school closed. Warnie transferred to Malvern, another boarding school in England, while Jack returned to Ireland to attend a school close to home.

When he wasn't doing schoolwork, Jack spent his time writing stories and drawing pictures of the made-up kingdoms he and Warnie had imagined as boys. He missed his brother, and when Warnie came home for the holidays, they'd leaf through magazines while Warnie regaled Jack with tales of his new boarding school.

Warnie: It's not all books, Jack. We play games every day.

Jack: Really?

Warnie: Yes. And the kids who are good at sports are popular.

Jack: Well, I can't swing a cricket bat for anything.

Warnie: Ah, don't worry. Just be a good sport and you'll have fun.

Jack: Fun? Sports sound about as much fun as a neighborhood dance tonight.

Father: Hello, boys!

Warnie: Father, look at this Rover motorbike. It's got a 500cc...

Father: You don't need a motorbike. Warnie, I've lived 50 years without a motorbike.

Warnie: You lived 45 years without a telephone, too, and now you have one.

Father: Well, you're not buying a motorbike with my money. Tell me more about school, Warnie.

Guest (Male): When he was 14, Jack started attending school at Malvern. Though Warnie had already moved on and was studying for college entrance exams with William Kirkpatrick, their father's old school headmaster, Jack still looked forward to the new school.

However, once he arrived, he discovered that life at Malvern was not as glorious as he expected. Older students bullied the younger boys, treating them like servants.

Guest (Male): Lewis, my shoes need polishing.

Jack: The school laundry can take care of them for you.

Guest (Male): Lewis, my man, you want me to wait an entire day before my shoes get shined? What, you think you're too good to help a man out?

Jack: I have a Greek exam.

Guest (Male): I know you're new here, and you can't help that you're Irish, but you have to respect your betters if you want to last long here.

Jack: Well, truth is, I'd really much rather be going...

Guest (Male): Lewis, you've got a lot to learn. Now here you go, my shoes. They're muddy from playing rugby, but I better be able to see my reflection when you're done with them.

Jack: Yes, sir.

Guest (Male): That's the spirit, Lewis. You're going to do just fine.

Guest (Male): Despite the upperclassman's words, Jack did not do fine. Constant bullying made him wish he weren't studying at Malvern. The only place Jack could escape harassment was the campus library.

Guest (Male): Jack, you done with that paper for Professor Smewgie?

Jack: I just finished.

Guest (Male): Well done, my man. You know, I really enjoy Smewgie. I didn't think I would at first. I thought, who actually enjoys reading Latin or Milton? But he really respects you, you know.

Jack: Too bad more of his students don't follow his example.

Guest (Male): If only. Hey, Jack, you ever think the meanest boys are the ones who got picked on the most when they were underclassmen?

Jack: That's how the world works, isn't it? Everybody's stepping on somebody else to get to the top. And so it goes on and on and on for eons. You'd think God would have designed a better world than that, if there even is a God. The world is just so cruel.

Guest (Male): When Jack was home on Easter break, he became friends with his neighbor Arthur. They disagreed on the point of religion. Arthur was a devout Christian, and Jack had given up on God, but the friends shared a love of music, literature, and Norse myths. Jack enjoyed their lively conversations and begged his father not to send him back to Malvern.

Father: Well, Jack, Kirkpatrick prepared Warnie here for the Royal Military College. I suppose I could send you to study with him instead.

Jack: Could you really?

Warnie: I'll say. Jack always thinks he's the smartest person in the room. I think old Kirk would knock some sense into him.

Father: In my day, we didn't call him the Great Knock for nothing.

Guest (Male): When he was 15, Jack traveled by train to Great Bookham outside London to live with Kirkpatrick and his wife while he prepared for his college entrance exams. Kirkpatrick met him at the station.

Jack: Well, I've arrived. Now I just need to find the Great Knock. Oh, I think I see him. Clive Lewis?

Kirkpatrick: Yes, but people call me Jack. Good day, sir.

Jack: Is it?

Kirkpatrick: Is it what?

Jack: Good.

Kirkpatrick: On what basis do you pronounce today good?

Jack: I, well, nothing bad has happened so far, so...

Kirkpatrick: Come on, we can discuss as we walk. You say nothing bad has happened, Clive, but as we speak, nation after nation is going to war. Turkey has just declared war on Belgium. Now, what business does Turkey have with Belgium?

Jack: I don't know.

Kirkpatrick: And Great Britain has been at war nearly a month now. No doubt your brother will be called up for military service soon. Will that be a good day?

Jack: No, but I suppose it's a matter of how things turn out. All's well that ends well.

Kirkpatrick: If that's the case, we're surely getting ahead of ourselves, aren't we? Well, we've arrived at home.

Guest (Male): Kirkpatrick began tutoring Jack right away and insisted on using his given name.

Kirkpatrick: Clive will begin by reading the Iliad by Homer in the original Ionic Greek.

Guest (Male): Jack listened in astonishment as Kirkpatrick read the first hundred lines of the ancient poem. Then Kirkpatrick assigned him to study the vocabulary on his own. Each day, they worked a little bit further through the poem, and Jack understood more and more. Once he had a good understanding of ancient Greek, they added Latin texts, then French and German and Italian.

Jack studied in the morning, had afternoons free to explore the countryside, and hit the books again every evening. Kirkpatrick was an exacting instructor, and Jack animatedly shared his impressions of the man with his friend Arthur when he was home on break.

Jack: So Kirk won't let you say a single word without dissecting it like a peach. Yes, if I say those brutal Germans, he'll shout, "Wait! A brute is an animal. What animal was ever so cruel and heartless as a single human being?"

Arthur: That's one way to look at things.

Jack: Oh, he does make me think, and not just me. He treats other people like that. Oh yes, you should have seen when his wife's friends came over to play bridge. There he is, surrounded by old women, saying, "What do you mean by that?"

Arthur: What a way to view the world.

Jack: The thing is, Kirk only believes in what he can see and touch. That's why he doesn't believe in God. God can't be seen. But Arthur, don't you think there must be more to the world than what meets the eye?

Arthur: What do you mean?

Jack: Take literature. Is its beauty any less real than the ground we stand on? Aren't there things we can only feel with our hearts?

Arthur: Like peace and joy?

Jack: Yes, exactly! The pity is, everything that makes life worth living is invisible, and what I can reach out and touch is meaningless.

Arthur: You sound like the book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible.

Aunt Nikki: Boys and girls, we'll be right back to the story. But first, I was just thinking about something.

Uncle Jon: Oh, and what were you thinking about, Aunt Nikki?

Aunt Nikki: About the name of this story, C.S. Lewis' Journey to Jesus, and about how we're all on our own journey to Jesus.

Uncle Jon: Then I imagine you must also be thinking about your story hour's Bible lessons, Adventures in the Holy Bible.

Aunt Nikki: Right you are, Uncle Jon.

Uncle Jon: Boys and girls, we're so happy that we can share these Bible lessons with you. I personally think that they're both fun and interesting, and to top it all off, they're free.

Aunt Nikki: One of my favorite things about the lessons is that as you go through them, you'll get free audio stories about the life of Jesus. By the time you finish all 52 lessons, you'll have our entire series from Jesus's birth through his resurrection.

Uncle Jon: It's fun to listen and imagine you're right there in the Bible times, walking beside Jesus as he heals the lepers and blind men, feeds 5,000 people, walks on the water, and shares God's love with everyone.

Aunt Nikki: So what are you waiting for? You can do the lessons online at our website, yourstoryhour.org. Just click on Kids' Corner in the menu. Or you can sign up to do the lessons by mail.

Uncle Jon: However you choose to enjoy the lessons, Aunt Nikki and I pray that they help you on your journey to Jesus.

Aunt Nikki: Speaking of which, it's time to get back to today's story called C.S. Lewis' Journey to Jesus.

Guest (Male): Jack returned to England to complete his studies with Kirkpatrick, while his big brother Warnie served as an army officer in France in the First World War. In the spring of 1917, Jack followed in his brother's footsteps and enlisted in the military as well. After military training at Oxford, Jack joined his battalion as they prepared for deployment.

Sergeant: Company, halt! Dismissed!

Guest (Male): Ah, one day down. Tired yet?

Jack: Oh, I think I'm ready for a change of pace.

Guest (Male): Feels like we've been pacing all day long. My name's Johnson, Laurence Johnson.

Jack: Lewis. Well, that's my surname. I go by Jack.

Laurence: Good to meet you, Jack. You Irish?

Jack: Oi, what gave it away? Let me guess, you're from London Town.

Laurence: Yes, sir. Right in Shakespeare's shadow, though I guess old Shakes was from Stratford, eh?

Jack: Well, after today's two-hour lecture on how to read a map, I'm so cross-eyed that I'm not sure which end of the map is up.

Laurence: Well, Jack, I'm famished. Let's see what they've cooked up tonight.

Jack: Sounds good. Johnson, I'm not sure what this is on my plate.

Laurence: Probably best not to ask. You going to Oxford too?

Jack: Just as soon as this little war's over. I did my officer's training there in the spring, and it was magnificent. Even though it's currently just a pale reflection of itself with so many students off to war, I feel so alive there. The library, oh, and the bookshops!

Laurence: Oh, what a letdown to be shipping out, to have a taste of Oxford and then off to war.

Jack: But at least the army's not like boarding school, with everybody telling you how much you'll enjoy it when in reality it's terrible.

Laurence: True. No one says war's any fun.

Guest (Male): When they weren't training for war, Jack and Laurence Johnson spent hours talking about philosophy and literature.

Jack: Compared to you, Laurence, I feel ignorant about modern authors like Brooke and Bottomley and Masefield.

Laurence: Sure, but Jack, I could never read the original Iliad or Odyssey like you do. It's truly all Greek to me.

Jack: There's so much for both of us to read. As they say, of making many books there is no end.

Laurence: Ah, but that quote starts, "Much study is wearisome to the flesh." And that's from the Bible, Jack.

Jack: I don't believe in the Bible, Johnson, but that doesn't mean I don't know it. Doubters often know religion better than most believers.

Laurence: Ah, you might be right about that, my friend.

Jack: What do you think about religion?

Laurence: Well, the weight of evidence points to there being a God.

Jack: Yet there are 10,000 men falling every day in our armies, and just as many on the other side, all while God looks the other way.

Laurence: The world reaps the consequences of its choices, Jack. If you jump off a cliff and die, is your death God's fault for not sending a wind to whisk you to safety?

Jack: Isn't that what God did for Jonah with the whale?

Laurence: It certainly points to God's goodness.

Guest (Male): Deep discussions with his new friend helped the evenings pass by quickly. And after several weeks of training, their battalion set sail for France. On November 29th, 1917, which happened to be his 19th birthday, Jack, now Second Lieutenant Lewis, arrived at the front lines. Soldiers were camped out in trenches that ran for miles and miles.

Sergeant: Welcome to the war, gentlemen. Don't worry, you'll soon learn the difference between their bullets and ours.

Jack: Ah, I'll look for the German lettering on them. At least the trenches look nice and cozy with snowfall and winter coming on.

Sergeant: Just remember to dust every two weeks if you want to keep your trench feeling like home. Gets a little hard to dust all the mud though.

Jack: Good thing I packed a handkerchief.

Sergeant: Way to plan ahead, Jack. Gentlemen, what we lack here in comforts, we make up for in fine conversation and fellowship. Take good care of your boots. You'll find no truer friend here than the two boots on your feet.

Guest (Male): Jack soon became used to the rhythm of life in the trenches. Limited space, unpredictable sleep, constant noise, endless marches, and the ever-present threat of death. Every day brought new challenges.

Sergeant: And our job today is to reinforce these trenches.

Jack: Did you ask the Germans to knock it off for a bit so we don't have to do it all over again tomorrow?

Sergeant: I'll telegram their ruler, the Kaiser, and let him know his response.

Jack: Thanks, Sergeant.

Guest (Male): By the time Christmas arrived, Jack was very lonesome for home.

Laurence: Merry Christmas, Jack.

Jack: And to you, Laurence.

Laurence: How you doing?

Jack: Oh, I was just thinking about home and my brother Warnie. We're both here in France, but he's a supply officer, not posted here on the front lines. So who knows when I'll see him again.

Laurence: Ah, so near and yet so far.

Jack: Indeed.

Laurence: Here's something that might cheer you up. Word is they're putting on a Christmas concert for us soon. And here, I bought you a gift.

Jack: Oh, Laurence, a new book!

Laurence: And it doesn't look like 12 other men have already read it either.

Jack: Thank you.

Laurence: You said you never felt more at home than with a new book. So, welcome home, my friend.

Guest (Male): Reading the new book lifted his spirits, but soon afterward, Jack became ill with a fever. After spending several weeks at a Red Cross hospital, he returned to the confusion and exhaustion of war.

Sergeant: Forward march!

Guest (Male): Psst, you awake, Lewis? We're marching here.

Jack: Johnson, of course I'm awake. How could I fall asleep in this downpour?

Laurence: I've never seen someone march with their eyes shut before.

Jack: If I close my eyes, I won't know that my toes have turned into icicles.

Laurence: That's not how it works.

Jack: It's all right. Next bomb that goes off, I can warm myself up.

Guest (Male): As the winter of 1918 ended, the German army made one last push to defeat the British and their allies.

Sergeant: Men, it's the first day of spring! Which means the Germans have launched a new offensive. They aim to push through our lines and capture Paris. Not on our watch, men! However long it takes, we will break the German army!

Guest (Male): The Battle of Arras saw some of the fiercest fighting of the war. On April 15th, 1918, Jack and his fellow soldiers prepared to attack.

Sergeant: Men, today's the day. We're going to advance on the Germans. Our big guns will fire over you to clear the way. Let's move!

Guest (Male): As Jack and his fellow soldiers advanced, exploding shells fired by their own army fell short of the enemy lines.

Guest (Male): Look, Lieutenant, the shells, they're hitting our own men!

Jack: Take cover! Ah!

Guest (Male): An explosion threw Jack to the ground, his body taking numerous hits.

Jack: So, this is death.

Guest (Male): The world faded to black, and Jack was unconscious when his body was lifted off the battlefield and carried away on a stretcher.

Jack: Hmm.

Nurse: Good morning, soldier.

Jack: Nurse? Oh, where am I?

Nurse: You're in a hospital. How do you feel?

Jack: Uncomfortable.

Nurse: I imagine so. The important thing is that you're still with us. Here, let me help you sit up.

Jack: Thanks, ma'am.

Nurse: You're very welcome.

Jack: I have to ask. My men, Sergeant Ayres, Laurence Johnson?

Nurse: Now don't you spend any energy worrying about them. Just rest and get yourself better.

Guest (Male): At an army outpost many miles away, Warnie found out that his brother was wounded.

Guest (Male): Lieutenant Lewis, there's a telegram for you from your father.

Warnie: Thank you, sir. Wounded! Jack, you rascal. Officer, I need to borrow a motorbike. My brother Jack has been wounded, and I must go to him.

Guest (Male): Certainly, Lewis. Godspeed.

Warnie: You better be all right, Jack.

Guest (Male): Meanwhile, as Jack rested in the hospital, an officer came to check on him.

Officer: Lieutenant Lewis.

Jack: Good morning, officer.

Officer: You took quite a hit.

Jack: Yes, sir. But Sergeant Ayres and Lieutenant Johnson, they didn't survive, did they?

Officer: No, Lieutenant, they died instantly in the explosion.

Jack: Oh. Johnson and I were looking forward to studying together at Oxford.

Officer: I know. He was a good man. How do you feel, Jack?

Jack: Tired, Captain. Bone tired.

Warnie: Where is he? Where is Jack Lewis?

Nurse: He's over there, sir.

Warnie: Jack!

Jack: Warnie! Oh, brother, you came to see me.

Warnie: Jack, you're all right!

Jack: Yes, I'm hanging in there.

Warnie: Well, you better be. I rode 50 miles across a barren landscape to get here. I was worried you might be at death's door.

Jack: Nah, just a few bits of shrapnel in my chest, my side, and my hands.

Warnie: Your chest? Did they get the shrapnel out?

Jack: I think they'll have to leave it in there, Warnie. It may be too close to my heart.

Warnie: Wow. I guess a miss is as good as a mile.

Guest (Male): Jack spent the remainder of the war recovering from his wounds. Even after his skin healed over, he still experienced emotional trauma with nightmares that lasted for years. When the war ended, Jack finally began full-time studies at Oxford, where he once again enjoyed deep conversations with friends.

Jack: Owen, I was walking in nature the other day.

Owen: Again?

Jack: Yes, again! And I felt it. A sense of longing that I used to experience while gazing at the green hills when I was a boy.

Owen: Longing. What for?

Jack: Something greater.

Owen: Greater like God?

Jack: Oh, I wouldn't call it a God. I don't think there's somebody peeking over our shoulder and planning Judgment Day. It's more like an Absolute.

Owen: So that's your compromise, Jack. You admit that there's a God, but he's some impersonal absolute force.

Jack: Mm-hmm.

Owen: So where do our values come from? Our sense of right and wrong?

Jack: People have always tried to make sense of the universe. It's human nature.

Owen: If what you say is right, then love and honor and fairness can be whatever we want them to be. If they mean different things to everybody, do they have any meaning?

Jack: That's the question.

Guest (Male): Jack wrestled with his ideas of religion. After graduating with degrees in philosophy and English, he became a professor at Magdalen College in Oxford. One night in his office, as Jack struggled with his beliefs, he had a realization.

Jack: Am I just being stubborn calling God an Absolute? Am I the one pretending? Not like a child at play pretends, but someone foolishly denying what's real. I know in my heart it's more, that you're more. That all my life you've been there.

All right, God, I hear you. I accept you. It's you I've been sensing, calling me all along. Lord, I kneel before you, acknowledging that you alone are the creator and ruler of the universe.

Guest (Male): Two years later, while riding to a zoo in the sidecar of Warnie's motorcycle, Jack accepted Jesus as his Savior. For the rest of his life, he used his skills of logic and philosophy to become a great writer and share his hard-earned faith in God.

Today his beloved books like Mere Christianity and The Chronicles of Narnia are a source of inspiration to people all around the world. Many of his stories tell of heroes on epic quests, but his very own quest for truth and love was the greatest quest of all.

Uncle Jon: What an amazing journey to Jesus, Aunt Nikki.

Aunt Nikki: Indeed, Uncle Jon. God loves and wants to connect with each one of us, no matter what we've been through.

Uncle Jon: Mm-hmm. And we want to connect with him too.

Aunt Nikki: One great way to connect with God is through the Bible lessons we've mentioned earlier, Adventures in the Holy Bible.

Uncle Jon: Girls and boys, you can sign up online at yourstoryhour.org in the section called Kids' Corner.

Aunt Nikki: Or you can call us at 800-987-7879. Our office will be happy to help you sign up.

Uncle Jon: That's right, because Aunt Nikki and I and all of the staff at Your Story Hour love you very much.

Aunt Nikki: Yes we do, and we look forward to joining with you again next time. Goodbye.