Ok. So, this is just another way to talk about perspective. I’m really big on perspective. Context and perspective. We think that our thinking is unattached sometimes. As in, “Well, this is just what I think.” In fact, our thinking is dependent on so many things. We are the creatures of all sorts of stuff, much of which has little or nothing to do with the thing or things about which we are thinking.

As an historian and observer of things, I always question perspective and the sources of perspective. Kind of necessary to determine what’s really going on.

Another way of putting this is to consider the lenses through which we look when we are examining or thinking about things. Do we realize we all look through lenses? Do we take the time to think through the nature of those lenses? Do we ask hard questions about how appropriate they are? By hard questions, are we open to direct feedback about those lenses? Do we listen with integrity to those who see the world through a different set? Honestly, I don’t think many people pay attention to this. Perhaps you will disagree.

I bring this up because here is a C.S. Lewis thought that I just ran across.

“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen; not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”

Now, at first glance, someone who does not see things this way may naturally be dismissive as in, “well, ok. if you want to chase rainbows and it works for you, go for it. But leave me out of it.”

It’s actually a pretty bold move to say that everything … I’ll say it again, everything … is dependent on getting one thing right.

If one’s view of things … one’s lens … is that everything is determined by what one feels is true at the moment … then basing how we look at everything on just one thing has got to be extremely foreign and oft-putting. However, honestly, we all do this whether we realize it or not. We all organize our perspective around a thing or things that we hold to be true, whether we open those to the light of day or not.

When I say I struggled with this for many, many years. Actually many decades, I mean it. I don’t think there was a philosophy or religion or political viewpoint or scientific explanation of the big picture that I was largely unfamiliar with. I tried to consider them as stand alones. I tried comparing and contrasting. I tried combining elements. I searched for explanations that others had arrived at to make sense of everything … to give a basis for how, what and why I believed in the reality of things. I searched the evidence in history, psychology, sociology, economics, the arts and literature, biology, chemistry and physics, archaeology and anthropology. My idol, in fact, became the search itself. It became a kind of obsession, like there is no possible complete explanation so just surrender to a life of looking. That’s all we can do.

Now, some may say I surrendered for expediencies-sake. Something akin to saying, “heck, I need a port in the storm so I might as well choose this one. it’s not the perfect safe harbor, mind you, but it does offer the security I’m seeking.” Honestly, that’s completely understandable. In the search for meaning or significance, we all crave some form of security, of a stable outlook, the key to which unlocks the tumblers and opens the door to the answers we desire. The problem with the current and increasing inclination in our popular culture to determine truth through feeling is that feelings are always fleeting and truth doesn’t do well on shifting sands. It’s not difficult to see, if we pay attention, that there is seemingly no end to this direction, with its insatiable appetite to lash out at those who attest they’ve arrived on solid ground.

No doubt, Lewis’ simple reflection would get him derided or ridiculed in popular culture today. “How dare he!” Well, how dare I.

If I had a deck of cards, each one imprinted with a different philosophy, religious belief, or world view, and I decided to cut the deck and go all in on the one which arrived face-up, that would be silly. On the other hand, if by the process of extensive analysis and experience, I arrive at the only explanation that truly makes sense, no matter how strange it may be, that would not be silly. Furthermore, if after coming to that conclusion, every single feature of this life points to that explanation as authentic, the absence of which would contradict what I know to be true about each of those features, then it’s an academic exercise to look through a different lens, but that alternative lens (way of thinking) is, ultimately, a poor substitute. Think of Einstein’s 1905 earthshaking publication of his theory of relativity, which built upon the truths of the past but completely reoriented everything. It has been tested gazillions of times. There has not emerged one shred of evidence that that lens is faulty. While we may learn a lot more, nothing suggests it is not true and it is the lens through which we look at everything from the tiniest of particles to the most massive of galaxies, of space and time  and all of the forces which make our existence possible.

Christianity is like that. Not the Christianity that is, unfortunately, in place in some of our churches and communities. Not the Christianity that is increasingly occupying space in the minds of Hollywood and much of academia. But, the Christianity that is rooted in the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus. It is a vibrant and fully edifying explanation. It certainly does not provide easy answers and simple comforts. It is definitely not a safe harbor where one avoids the storm, securely ensconced dockside.

Sunlight is dangerous. In fact, it can be very dangerous. But it is also completely life-giving. C.S. Lewis simply says that he has arrived at the conclusion that Christianity is as fundamentally true as the most basic things we accept to be true. This brilliant man and scholar, a dedicated atheist, after years of struggle and examination, finally arrived at this conclusion because it’s the only one that made sense. So, when he concludes his thought with the observation that everything only makes sense because of this fundamental truth, that’s quite a bold statement. In the thirteen years since the tumblers clicked and the safe door opened, I haven’t seen one thing that dissuades me from agreeing with him. And that’s that.