Learning in War-Time

This was a great sermon because it presented and answered many great questions about allegiances and priorities.  C.S. Lewis says something very interesting and provocative when he says the following:
"To admit that we can retain our interest in learning under the shadow of these eternal issues, but not under the shadow of a European war, would be to admit that our ears are closed to the voice of reason and very wide open to the voice of our nerves and our mass emotions."
He makes an interesting comparison between the war and eternal issues such as heaven and hell.  He goes on the say this:
"Human culture has always had to exist under the shadow of something infinitely more important that itself.  If men had postponed the search for knowledge and beauty until they were secure the search would have never begun."
He is saying that war really doesn't change things that much when one chooses to look at the situation from a Christian perceptive.  "Life has never been normal."  We have always done what we do under the more important reality of eternal things.

Lewis says that the real question is not if there is a legitimate place for a scholar during war, but rather a place for a scholar considering the reality that there are still souls that need to be saved.  He goes on to say that Christianity does not exclude any normal human activities.  Rather the Bible says to do all things to the glory of God.  Christianity does not change the things we do in our normal lives, but rather it changes how and why we do them.  Lewis says that we are to exploit these things to supernatural ends.  If a man is given the gifts of a scholar and that is the vocation he is called to, he is being just as faithful to the work of God than if he were doing something else.

I really like the question the Lewis asks at the beginning of the sermon and how he turns it on its head.  Lewis has an amazing knack for making people see beyond their current reality and into the eternal one.  Many Christians do put a very heavy emphasis on going out and saving souls and their motivations seem to be very legitimate.  Lewis is not saying that going out and doing this is a bad thing, but what he is saying is that it is very important to bloom and bear fruit where you are planted.  I love when he says that we are to exploit normal, everyday living to supernatural ends.  Hearing that really compels me to be passionate about all the things that I do and do them for the glory of God especially with regard to vocation.  If this actually happens, people will take notice and want what the Christian has.  The person who lives this out will influence the people around them in an amazing way and they will have much opportunity to be used by God in the soul saving process.  God wants us to bear fruit where we are planted using the gifts that He has given to us.  If the Christian scholar and Christian missionary both execute this they have both been equally faithful.