Learning in Wartime

The question addressed in this essay is this: "What is the use of beginning a task which we have so little chance of finishing? or even if we ourselves should happen not to be interrupted by death or military service, why should we - indeed how can we - continue to take an interest in these placid occupations when the lives of our friends and the liberties of Europe are in the balance? Is it not like fiddling while Rome burns?"

Ultimately Lewis answers this question very easily in saying that even people in the war, even people in the trenches are thinking about something else. They are not entirely submerged in thoughts of battle and victory, but in thoughts of family, and religion. And he says that there will always be bad philosophy, so there needs to be good philosophy to counter it. If you are not going to be reading good books you will be reading bad books.

But above all else Lewis answers the questions with this one quote, "The war creates no absolutely new situation: it simply aggravates the permanent human situation so that we can no longer ignore it... Human culture has always had to exist under the shadow of something infinitely more important than itself." Incredibly powerful, and no explanation or application is necessary to follow that quote. But what I do want to touch on is a quote that he says later in the essay, one that can be applied in everyone's life and should be the means and reason for everything we do.

"Never, in peace or war, commit your virtue or your happiness to the future. Happy work is best done by the man who take his long-term plans somewhat lightly and works from moment to moment 'as to the Lord'. It is only our daily bread that we are encouraged to ask for. The present is the only time in which any duty can be done or any grace received."

This quote is a concept that can touch on anything and everything we do. Point one, live "moment to moment." Do not worry about what you will wear or eat (see Matthew 7). If you cannot live in the present then you are not truly alive. Many people attempt to escape their past or live in the anticipation of the future, either way they are not in the present, therefore (for all practical purposes) dead.

On this same point I want to offer a bit of my own life experience. A week before move in day for Fall semester I was broken up with by my girlfriend. This blow was crushing to me, and I think I fell into a bit of depression. But, looking back, the reason it was so hard is because I lived the first half of the Fall semester in my past. I was hoping for my past to repeat itself, hoping to have it back, and I couldn't exist in the present. I hated who I was, impersonal, bad at communicating, lazy... It was a difficult time because I was not living in the present, I was living int he past.

Next point of Lewis' quote is "as to the Lord." Do everything as a blessing or worship to the Lord. A constant theme that has been brought up time and time again in this class is that everything you do either brings you closer to Heaven or Hell. In this case, everything you do either glorifies God or rebels against him. Give everything in your life to God: every class you attend, every job you work, every song you sing, every nap you take, every night you sleep, every time you smile, every sunset you see... Everything belongs to the Lord, but take the initiative to give it to him.

Ultimately, live every moment in the present, and give your present to God. This is how we are called to live, and this is the only way we can truly be living.

In Christ,

Ben