Marion E. Wade Center

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
Ephesians 2:1-2 (NIV)

A few years ago I had the joy of visiting the Marion E. Wade Center at Wheaton College in Illinois which contains C.S. Lewis’ archives. Along with his letters and writings, I had a chance to see and touch both his desk and his wardrobe. For a fan of The Chronicles of Narnia it was a real treat.

Here in our home we have an enduring love of, and appreciation for, classic epic children’s fantasy stories like The Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter, and A Wrinkle in Time. As I’ve pondered these classic stories, it has struck me that there is a common theme. Children in this world discover that there is another world, a larger reality that most people know nothing about. As readers we are drawn into these larger worlds through a wardrobe or Platform 9 3/4 and we blissfully lose ourselves within them. They resonate deeply within us.

For C.S. Lewis, at least, the creation of Narnia was simply a reflection of a spiritual reality he discovered when he himself became a believer:

“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”

To be a disciple of Jesus is to believe that there is a much larger Story being told outside the feedback system of our physical senses and human intellect. Jesus continually taught of God’s Kingdom, told His followers to seek that Kingdom, to store up treasures in that Kingdom, and understand that there is an eternal reality that is greater than we realize or can humanly comprehend. In fact, if we have faith to believe it, that reality is more real than this earthly reality in which we live each day. Those who have had Near Death Experiences (NDEs) and have had a taste of that reality often say that it’s really this physical world that is a mere shadow of the ultimate realities of God’s eternal Kingdom.

In Paul’s letter to the believers in Ephesus, I find that he is attempting to pull back on the lens of their understanding to see the much larger spiritual realities of the Great Story in which they find themselves. The Story begins in Genesis when humanity finds itself stuck in a conflict of good and evil. Jesus ministry begins with a confrontation between himself and evil one. Jesus earthly life ends acknowledging that His death is a part of this larger Kingdom conflict. The Story ends in Revelation in a final confrontation between Jesus and the evil one who gathers all of the kingdoms of this world against Him. The Story begins and ends in a reality that exists outside of our present earthly realities.

Paul tells the believers in Ephesus that they are part of a much larger Story than they ever realized. It’s a Story in which Paul and his ancestors have played a major part through history while the Gentile (e.g. non-Jewish) Ephesian believers have been largely clueless. Through Jesus, Paul explains, they need to understand that they’ve entered into this larger Story that God has been authoring from the beginning. They are part of it now, and they need to understand the larger spiritual realities they’ve entered.

Just like Lucy hiding in an old wardrobe and suddenly finding herself standing by a lamppost in the snow.

In the quiet this morning, I’m reminded that this day, every day, there is more going on in the spiritual realm of God’s Kingdom than I can possibly, humanly know. This doesn’t make the mundane tasks of my to-do list meaningless. It makes them holy. The seemingly banal tasks of my everyday life become a liturgy of the ordinary that are part of a higher purpose. It’s what Paul was saying to the followers of Jesus in Colossae who were enslaved. Every day they were serving an expansively larger Kingdom amidst their limited earthly realities.

And so, I enter another day of this earthly journey doing the mundane tasks on my to-do list. The liturgy of the ordinary in God’s Kingdom work on earth.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

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As mentioned in previous posts, my friend Kevin McQ and I are in a production of the one-act play Freud’s Last Session scheduled for October 17-20 (Dates have changed!). The play imagines a meeting between Sigmund Freud (just weeks from his death) and C.S. Lewis.

C.S. Lewis’ desk at the Marion E. Wade Center.

As part of our research of Lewis we became aware of the Marion E. Wade Center on the campus of Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. The center hosts an archive of Lewis’ writing and correspondence along with a collection of Lewis’ possessions including his desk and his childhood wardrobe.

This prompted an idea for a one-day Grumpy Old Men marathon adventure for Kevin and me. So it was that we departed Pella at 4:00 a.m. this past Friday morning and drove in a cold rain all the way to Wheaton College. We pulled up to the Wade Center at promptly 9:00 a.m. when they opened. My nephew Sam is in grad school at Wheaton and hooked us up with his friend, Aaron, who works at the Center.

Aaron gave us a tour of the Wade center. We got to see (and touch) the Wardrobe (For Wendy’s benefit, I checked to see if maybe…) and Lewis’ desk where he penned many of his books. There was also the desk of J.R.R. Tolkien where he wrote The Hobbit and much of The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion. As a lover of writing instruments I also enjoyed seeing both Lewis’ and Tolkien’s fountain pens. The archive there contains an exhaustive collection of Lewis’ voluminous correspondence. Both Kevin and I wished we’d had more time in the schedule to explore the archive.

It was still raining when we caught the 10:55 train from Wheaton to Chicago. We walked in the rain to catch the Red Line to Addison and then walked to Wrigley Field for the Cubs’ 1:20 p.m. game agains the Cincinnati Reds. It was our good fortune that the rain stopped just as we entered Wrigley and held off for the entire game. We watched Alec Mills on the mound for the Northsiders in his MLB debut. He pitched a gem and even notched his first MLB hit. The game also included Daniel Murphy’s first home run as a Cub and the Cubs won the game in the bottom of the 10th with a walk-off homer by David Bote. Stellar afternoon!

Kevin and I retraced our tracks back to Wheaton and it was raining again by the time we arrived. We drove back to Pella, arriving just before midnight. A memorable 20 hour adventure!