I ran across a great C.S. Lewis quote today.
I've read C.S. Lewis for years and I find him to be imminently quotable. I know that he didn't write for that purpose - but, my, how he had a way with words!
So here's a word from C.S. Lewis that I discovered just today - a word that I don't recall ever seeing before.
It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird:
it would be a jolly sight harder
for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg.
We are like eggs at present.
And we cannot go on indefinitely
being just an ordinary, decent egg.
We must be hatched or go bad.
it would be a jolly sight harder
for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg.
We are like eggs at present.
And we cannot go on indefinitely
being just an ordinary, decent egg.
We must be hatched or go bad.
I can't quite get the picture out of my mind. I'm thinking right now of an egg trying to fly. The absurdity of the picture is exactly what C.S. Lewis was going for. And it's the absurdity of that picture that causes us to think about our own lives.
"We are eggs at present," Lewis points out. But we aren't meant to stay that way. What Lewis holds before us is transformation, change, maturity, growth. In a word, we need to be hatched. And if we are not hatched, to use Lewis' image, we'll just end up being rotten eggs.
I know that the picture is absurd, but it seems to me that many of us are trying to fly as eggs - longing for some different outcome even while we refuse to be different. Fighting against the very change that would make it possible for us to live. I'm not exactly sure what it would mean for us to be hatched - but I'm pretty sure that being hatched is a lot better than going bad.
It's kind of funny. When I was growing up, my dad always told me to be "a good egg." I always thought it was such a goofy thing to say. I had no idea that C.S. Lewis would have told me the very same thing.
And C. S. Lewis goes further and tells me what it means to be a good egg. A good egg is willing to be hatched.
I have a lot of respect for both my dad and C.S. Lewis.
So, yes, I want to be a good egg.
"We are eggs at present," Lewis points out. But we aren't meant to stay that way. What Lewis holds before us is transformation, change, maturity, growth. In a word, we need to be hatched. And if we are not hatched, to use Lewis' image, we'll just end up being rotten eggs.
I know that the picture is absurd, but it seems to me that many of us are trying to fly as eggs - longing for some different outcome even while we refuse to be different. Fighting against the very change that would make it possible for us to live. I'm not exactly sure what it would mean for us to be hatched - but I'm pretty sure that being hatched is a lot better than going bad.
It's kind of funny. When I was growing up, my dad always told me to be "a good egg." I always thought it was such a goofy thing to say. I had no idea that C.S. Lewis would have told me the very same thing.
And C. S. Lewis goes further and tells me what it means to be a good egg. A good egg is willing to be hatched.
I have a lot of respect for both my dad and C.S. Lewis.
So, yes, I want to be a good egg.