The Great Divorce

I had never read C.S. Lewis' book entitled: The Great Divorce until this week. I started reading it on Tuesday and finished it early this afternoon. I am astounded at it's prophetic voice, as well as it's direct reading of the human heart. Lewis, in my opinion has written within the pages of this book, a accurate reading of why people don't let go of their sin and why in fact they themselves choose the death of hell.

The story is a dream sequence in which a man goes from Hell to Heaven on a bus. However, it's not quite Heaven, you still have to choose to go to the "mountain" where the reader is to believe Heaven is fully realized. A man is there, with the choice still before him, eavesdropping on other peoples conversations on letting go of certain things in order to begin traveling towards "the mountain". The conversations that are overheard by the gentleman are conversations we ourselves have seen in life. People choosing to deny God, choosing to continue to embrace deathly habits, even after they've been to what is called "Hell" they choose not to embrace what they are experiencing as "Heaven".

I can't do justice to Lewis' great work, I can only attempt to convey in some small way, the depth of the story. There is one exchange in particular that I will be using for my sermon on October 12th. I will post the sermon sometime around the 14th so you can listen in. However, I will say that it is an extremely telling (not only of my own heart, but that of the world's heart) of our absolute depravity without Christ.

I'll stop here and encourage you all to pick up your own copy. It's no more than 160 pages ad is a pretty easy read, but it's very, very good!