Last night myself and a few others from our Tuesday Night Bible Study group at Texas State attended a lecture that one of the professors had set up entitled "The Legacy of C.S. Lewis: A Master Communicator." The lecture was by Walter Hooper, a brilliant man who spent time as Lewis' personal secretary near the end of his time hear on earth. At first I'll have to admit that I was reluctant to go because I thought it might not be that entertaining. I could not have been further from the truth. Dr. Hooper was fascinating and hilarious. However, the one thing that impressed me the most was that his entire lecture circled around Lewis' faith as a Christian. He talked about his apologetics, his theology, and his evangelism. Hooper said that Lewis was always a great technical writer, even before he was a believer. But few of his pre-Christian works are of any fame or legacy. Hooper stated it was because Lewis had nothing to say then. After becoming a believer, he was an instrument for the Lord and carried a message that was worth saying...This was a pretty cool thing to be happening at Texas State, one of the most secular universities in the state. I highly recommend picking up some of Hooper's work on Lewis if you are a reader and have read any C.S. Lewis at all...I'll leave you with a couple quotes/stories shared by Hooper about Lewis:
Hooper met Bob Jones, the conservative president of Bob Jones University before he met Lewis. Knowing that Jones knew Lewis, Hooper asked about him. Jones replied in a stern manner, "That man smokes the pipe...and he does drink a little...but I believe he is a Christian."
On his first meeting with Lewis, Hooper said Lewis spoke these words to him after Hooper complemented Lewis's work and its influence on him: "I am glad I was used as an instrument of the Lord in your life. In his hands any instrument will do...Otherwise, none."
A final story he shared was of the two men walking home in Oxford one evening and being approached by a beggar. Lewis gave the man some money and Hooper asked him as they walked away, "Aren't you afraid he'll use it on drink?" Lewis quickly replied, "Well, if I had kept it, that's what I'd have used it on."
Hooper also told how Lewis never took any money from his writings. Up until the time he married he had 100% of his money off his writings given to a charity for widows and orphans. After marrying, he still gave 2/3 of his money to the charity and 1/3 to his wife and step-children. I knew going into last night that C.S. Lewis was a man of faith. I left with an understanding of how much he really lived that out. C.S. Lewis was a great example of John the Baptist's exclamation: "He must become greater, I must become less!"
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