I Am He Whom Thou Seekest

I was never much of a runner. The sport of competing against other runners never interested me. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that I'm not very fast in the first place. But I have had some very good times playing other sports and I know that for many of them you have to strip down so that your ordinary street clothes don't get in the way. That's the image the Hebrew writer borrows as he opens chapter twelve with these words:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. - Hebrews 12:1-2 ESV

His therefore connects us to the previous chapter's parade of men and women who walked in faith, but did not receive the better country they longed for. They are for us a great cloud of witnesses. In spite of their numerous frustrations, losses, grief and pain they did not give up their faith. They continued to believe that the LORD would one day somehow fulfill His promises. They surround us with their faith. They are our surrounding cloud. We live and breath their witness and are thus encouraged.

Therefore let us lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run the race that is set before us. 

Consider what he is saying.

Faith is not wishful thinking or whistling in the dark or crossing your fingers superstitiously. Faith is putting your trust in a person, a particular PERSON whom you are totally and completely convinced is able to and will keep  his promises. There is power in that relationship. The whole Bible is filled with stories of men and women who had this person to PERSON relationship with their LORD. The Hebrews writer has just been pointing to them.

A personal note here. I can still vividly remember how I was ushered into such a relationship during my final college year. I had already committed myself to preparing for the pastoral ministry, but I had deep-seated doubts. I was not convinced that the LORD wanted or even offered such a relationship. Yes, I knew many objective facts about Jesus, His birth, life, suffering, death and resurrection. But somehow I wanted more. I wanted to meet Him face to face, person to person. I was, in truth, running from Him. For a long time I was the young man Francis Thompson describes in his moving poem, The Hound of Heaven.

I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;

I fled Him, down the arches of the years;

I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways

Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears

I hid from Him, and under running laughter.

Up vistaed hopes, I sped;

And shot, precipitated,

Adown Titanic glooms of chasmèd fears,

From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.

But with unhurrying chase,

And unperturbèd pace,

Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,

They beat—and a Voice beat

More instant than the Feet—

"All things betray thee, who betrayest Me."

And then one day He found me, found me in the writings of C S Lewis, a man to whom I and thousands of others owe an eternal debt. My LORD took the Gospel and spoke it to me in the words of Lewis' stories. 

I can only pray that one day you too, my friend, will also stop running away from Him and find yourself surrounded not only with a cloud of witnesses, but also with that eternal cloud of His love for you, the same love that drove Him from the halls of heaven to be born of a virgin and laid in a lowly manger in a tiny town called Bethlehem. There love waits us all. 

Francis Thompson put it like this, 

Now of that long pursuit

Comes on at hand the bruit;

That Voice is round me like a bursting sea:

"And is thy earth so marred,

Shattered in shard on shard?

Lo, all things fly thee, for thou fliest Me!

Strange, piteous, futile thing,

Wherefore should any set thee love apart?

Seeing none but I makes much of naught" (He said),

"And human love needs human meriting:

How hast thou merited—

Of all man's clotted clay the dingiest clot?

Alack, thou knowest not

How little worthy of any love thou art!

Whom wilt thou find to love ignoble thee,

Save Me, save only Me?

All which I took from thee I did but take,

Not for thy harms,

But just that thou might'st seek it in My arms.

All which thy child's mistake

Fancies as lost, I have stored for thee at home:

Rise, clasp My hand, and come."

Halts by me that footfall:

Is my gloom, after all,

Shade of His hand, outstretched caressingly?

"Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest,

I am He Whom thou seekest!

Thou dravest love from thee, who dravest Me."

Influence, C. S. Lewis and Sadhu Sundar Singh

In recent days I've shared with you the source of the pride-filled Nazi emphasis upon the supposed Aryan race. The word Aryan comes from the ancient Sanskrit arya and initially referred to those who spoke northern India languages. I've also commented about the influence of C.S. Lewis in my life. 


Now today I stumbled upon Sadhu Sundar Singh, an Indian holy man and convert to Christianity who lived and taught around the world in the early years of the twentieth century. Kathryn Lindskoog suggests he had a strong influence upon C.S. Lewis. 

Commenting upon Lewis'  reference to the Sura in That Hideous Strength, Lindskoog asks, "What did Lewis mean by the term Sura? In Sanscrit the word means god. In the Hindu pantheon, a sura is a good angel or genie. In Arabic a sura is one of the 114 chapters of the Koran. Lewis must have known all this when he chose the word. I believe that Lewis used the word sura because he was hinting at the word sadhu, which means a holy man in India. (As an adjective in Sanscrit, sadhu means straight.) If Lewis had actually called his Christian mystic the Sadhu, some readers might have believed that his tale was a true account about the famous Sadhu Sundar Singh.

A bit further in her article Lindskoog continues, "Sundar Singh may have influenced C. S. Lewis in several ways. For example, the name Singh comes from the Sanskrit word for lion. Because Sundar Singh was popularly perceived as the most Christ-like man in Lewis's day, it is possible that Sundar Singh was in the back of Lewis's mind when Aslan the lion came bounding into Lewis's first story of Narnia. (Aslan is the Turkish word for lion.)"

How many of us have been influenced by Lewis? And in recent years how many have loved the tales of Narnia, both in their written form and now as movies? The number reaches into the millions I am certain.

How strange and wondrous are the workings of our Lord who is at work in all things for our good (Romans 8:28). And how great are the blessings that await those of us who have been called by His name (1 Corinthians 2:8-9).

Do Have A Most Joyful Christmas

Earlier this week I had a delightful conversation with my granddaughter about Reepicheep, a mouse character from C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia series. Reepicheep is a large, talking mouse who carries a rapier and wears a red plume tucked in his golden circlet. He is quite pugnacious and quick to defend any affront to his honor. It was fun to think about that little squirt again.

As we talked I suddenly realized that it has been too long since I've read any of Lewis' books. I must get back into them, because they meant so much to me in my college years way back in the 50s.


I have also been pondering how so many are trying to rob me and you of the joy of Christmas and the wonder of it all.
Then I remembered something hidden back in a dusty corner of my brain. I went there and could only find the rag ends of a quote from Lewis' Surprised by Joy. I had to Google to find it:


"A young man who wishes to remain a sound Atheist cannot be too careful of his reading. There are traps everywhere—'Bibles laid open, millions of surprises,' as Herbert says, 'fine nets and stratagems.' God is, if I may say it, very unscrupulous."


It's not that I ever was an atheist, but I must confess that in those years I wasn't feeling very close to God. He seemed to me to be so full of rules to keep, rules that I wasn't very good at anyway. So I felt more and more distant. Besides feeling quite guilty about all that, I felt rather bored by the whole religion thing.


And then I discovered Lewis! I must agree. One cannot be too careful of his reading if he wants to remain an Atheist—or become one. And so I too, with Lewis' help, was surprised by joy. How amazing it has all been, this journey since those days.


Well, that's what happens when one approaches the end of another year. You start to look back and then wonder what lies ahead. Of course, I know what lies ahead somewhere down the road. I remember this especially as I celebrate Christmas and ponder how that great, wondrous mysterious HE who is the source of all that is, became one with me in my rebellion, confusion, anxiety and death. And I gaze upon Him in His mother's arms and know not what more to say. The only words I can find are from the faithful apostle:


"If we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His," (Romans 6:5).


Oh what will that be like, that resurrection, that renewal? Like the little child gazing at all those wonders packaged up in bright paper under the tree, I can hardly wait. Do have a most joyful Christmas!