Anyway, I plan on starting this back up.  I’ve got 50 books lined up to read and am excited to post my findings and opinions of them.  Thanks for your patience with me.  :P

Honestly all I really have to say is that I enjoyed reading this along side the book of Exodus.  Especially at the beginning.  Dymer’s reaching out for an existence that is not familiar reminded me greatly of Moses in Pharaoh’s court.

Suffice to say this poem took me on a journey and I will probably revisit again some day.  But for now, I’m excited to move on to The Pilgrim’s Regress.  I am excited for this mostly because it’s the first book C.S. Lewis wrote after he became a Christian and I feel strongly that it will awaken some first love feelings in me once again.

I’ll keep you posted.  I’ll be better at reading.  I’ll be better at writing.  (:  Promise <33

The first C.S. Lewis book I chose to read isn’t really a book but rather a collection of poems he wrote.  It’s called The Spirits in Bondage and you can read the entire thing here.

My favorite poem out of the collection is one entitled “Song”

XXVI. Song

Faeries must be in the woods
Or the satyrs’ laughing broods-
Tritons in the summer sea,
Else how could the dead things be
Half so lovely as they are?
How could wealth of star on star
Dusted o’er the frosty night
Fill thy spirit with delight
And lead thee from this care of thine
Up among the dreams divine,
Were it not that each and all
Of them that walk the heavenly hall
Is in truth a happy isle,
Where eternal meadows smile,
And golden globes of fruit are seen
Twinkling through the orchards green;
Were the Other People go
On the bright sward to and fro?
Atoms dead could never thus
Stir the human heart of us
Unless the beauty that we see
The veil of endless beauty be,
Filled full of spirits that have trod
Far hence along the heavenly sod
And see the bright footprints of God.

I love this because even though I tend to stay away from stereotypical ideas of what heaven looks like this poem makes me crave the day when I will get to experience it.  It’s literature like that I aspire to write.  The words that take the readers imagination to new planets or realms or reality.  Stories that make you think outside the box.  I believe it’s an author’s ability to dream and use their imagination that captures an audience.

I’ll be moving on to the book “Narrative Poems” – including Dymer tomorrow and keep you posted from there.

For those of you who are just coming across this blog, my name’s Abby.  I’m living and working in Kansas City, MO with the International House of Prayer (IHOP).  It’s a 24/7 missions base to help usher in the return of Jesus through night and day prayer and worship.   www.ihop.org

Well, this year I am determined to try and read as much C.S. Lewis literature as I can get my hands on.  Why?  Well, that’s for another post, so keep reading.

Today I didn’t even get to actually biblical text, just read through the preface, introduction, and Spiritual Journey of C.S. Lewis that prelude Genesis.  I learned a lot about Lewis which was helpful.  I feel connected to and appreciate his longing for coherency with the Lord.  This was the quote that struck my heart earlier:

“This was certainly Lewis’s desire: to find the object of his deepest longing and have it be intellectually coherent and satisfying.”  -Jerry Root in The Spiritual Journey of C.S. Lewis – The C.S. Lewis Bible.

All Lewis wanted was to know why he felt the way he did, and understand it.  That is my toil and my strife.  To understand.  To not fall into disillusionment.  Pray for discernment.  Do your best.  I’ve been trying.

I think it’s interesting that I feel the most disillusioned at a time when I felt the most vulnerable.  I stripped myself down to the bare minimum seeking God with everything I knew how to do from 15 years of Sunday School classes and sermons.  Prayer, fasting, reading your bible. etc.  I was in the wilderness sort of.  Well along came a word from the Lord that I doubted was from the Lord because it was about a prince.  Like not Jesus, but a man… who I would marry.  I doubted and doubted and tried to shrug it off but the Lord’s persistency had me in turmoil.  So finally I asked for confirmation.  And I got it.  Then I got more confirmation.  Then even more confirmation.  So I waited.  And I waited.  And I waited some more.  And I’ll tell you what.  It’s been 3 and a half years and I am still waiting.  And still struggling.

Was what I heard not actually from God?  Did I misinterpret something?  What did I do wrong?  When? Why? How? What?

The chaos of confusion and the barrenness it brings.

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, But desire fulfilled is a tree of life. Proverbs 13:12

Here’s the list of the books I’m planning on reading/blogging about this coming year.  The bolded/italicized are the ones I’m still needing to get.

1.  1919 – Spirits of Bondage – Online

2.  1926 – Dymer – In the book Narrative Poems

3.  1933 – The Pilgrim’s Regress – book

4.  1936 – Allegory of Love – book

5.  1938 – Out of Silent Planet – book

6.  1939 – The Personal Heresy – book

7.  1939 – Rehabilitations – book

8.  1940 – The Problem of Pain – Book

9.  1942 – Broadcast Talks – book

10.  1942 – The Weight of Glory – book

11.  1942 – Prelandra – book

12.  1942 – The Screwtape Letters – book

13.  1943 – The Abolition of Man – book

14.  1944 – Beyond Personality – book

15.  1945 – The Great Divorce – book

16.  1945 – That Hideous Strength – book

17.  1947 – Miracles – book

18.  1948 – Vivisection – website

19.  1950 – The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – book

20.  1951 – Prince Caspian – book

21.  1952 – Mere Christianity – book

22.  1952 – The Voyage of the Dawn Treader – book

24.  1953 – The Silver Chair – book

25.  1954 – The Horse and his Boy – book

26.  1954 – English Literature in the Sixteenth Century – book

27.  1955 – The Magician’s Nephew – book

28.  1955 – Surprised by Joy – book

29.  1955 – Ministering Angels – In the Dark Tower and other Stories book

30.  1956 – Till We Have Faces – Myth Retold book

31.  1956 – The Last Battle – Book

32.  1956 – The Shoddy Lands – website

33.  1958 – Reflections On the Psalms – book

34.  1959 – Shall We Lose God in Outer Space – Hard to find unavailable book.

35.  1960 – The Four Loves – book

36.  1961 – A Grief Observed – book

37. 1961 An Experiment in Criticism

38.  1964 – Poems – book

39.  1964 – The Discarded Image – book

40.  1964 – Letters to Malcolm – book

41.  1965 – Screwtape Proposes a Toast – book

42.  1966 – Of Other Worlds – books

43.  1966 – Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Literature

44.  1970 – C.S. Lewis on Faith

45.  1972 – The Inspirational Writings of C.S. Lewis – Includes Surprised by Joy, reflections on the Psalms, Four loves, Business of Heaven books

46.  2003 – A Year with C.S. Lewis – book

47.  2004 – The Complete Poems – book

48.  2004 – The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis Volume 1 & 2 – books

49.  2007 – Boxen: Childhood Chronicles Before Narnia – book

• C. S. Lewis in The Magician’s Nephew