C.S. Lewis is well known for his classic work: The Chronicles of Narnia. Lewis died in 1963 and is known as one of the great thinkers of our century. He wrote over 30 books. He lived through the “blitz” in London when England was bombarded by four hundred planes a night. He gave talks to men in the Royal Air Force, who knew that after 13 bombing missions most would be dead. The BBC invited him to give a series of wartime broadcasts on Christian Faith, which became the material of his book: Mere Christianity. (I highly recommend it.)
The following excerpt from Lewis’ book: On Living in an Atomic Age, 1948 – seems very fitting for us today as we live in the shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic. Here’s what he said:
In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. “How are we to live in an atomic age?” I am tempted to reply: “Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in the age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.”
In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. We had, indeed, one very great advantage over our ancestors – anesthetics; but we have that still. It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.
This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things – praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts – not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.
(“On Living in an Atomic Age”, 1948, in Present Concerns: Journalistic Essays)
To be sure, we should take the necessary precautions to protect the vulnerable people among us. But we should not be living in fear, either. Trust the Lord as you live your life for Him! Remember, “All the days ordained for me (you) were written in your book before one on them came to be.” -Psalm 139:16 “God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power and love and self control” (1 Timothy 1:7).
Art Smith
Alliance