Learning in War-Time

What is the point of learning, of studying things like biology and literature, when there seems to be such a little chance of finishing and more things around us that, like war, are more important?  Lewis addresses this question of the trivial pursuit of learning in light of World War II.  "The war creates no absolutely new situation: it simply aggravates the permanent human situation so that we can no longer ignore it.  Human life has always been lived on the edge of a precipice.  Human culture has always had to exist under the shadow of something infinitely more important than itself....Life has never been normal."  Instead of just thinking about the war, Lewis says we need to consider first the fact that we "are every moment advancing either to heaven or to hell."

I have never thought of comparing the weight of war to eternity, and too often I forget how this life could just end in an instant.  I forget that each day here, in my normal life, is an opportunity to draw closer to God and to draw others as well.  Like Lewis says in "The Weight of Glory", "All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations [heaven or hell]."  

Lewis continues with the idea that after he became a Christian, he didn't so much change what he did, but in the manner, the attitude he did them and the way he thought about things.  Instead, we should do everything for the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31) because "all our merely natural activities will be accepted, if they are offered to God, even the humblest: and all of them, even the noblest, will be sinful if they are not."  Learning, for some people, is their duty, their calling, the way in which they can best glorify the Lord at that point in time.  Learning not for ourselves but "the pursuit of knowledge and beauty...for their own sake."  This is also for God's glory because "an appetite for these things exists in the human mind, and God makes no appetite in vain.  We can therefore pursue knowledge ...and beauty...in the sure confidence that by so doing we are either advancing to the vision of God ourselves or indirectly helping others to do so."  However, we must be careful not to "delight not in the exercise of our talents but in the fact that they are ours, or even in the reputation they bring us.  Every success in the scholar's life increases this danger.  If it becomes irresistible, he must give up his scholarly work.  The time for plucking out the right eye has arrived."

What do we do when the first thing we think when serving others in any capacity is, "Oh, I'm doing something right; I'm being a servant"?  I know lifting up it up to God and recognizing we are in no better position than they are solutions, but does one stop serving altogether until he has attained the right attitude?  Or does one keep serving because like Paul says, he is rejoicing over the fact people are spreading the Gospel, even though some have bad reasons for it?

Lewis raises three attacks scholars feel from war, which is excitement, frustration, and fear.  Excitement in the sense we think about the war rather than our work.  Lewis's argument is there are always distractions from work.  "The only people who achieve much are those who want knowledge so badly that they seek it while the conditions are still unfavorable."  Frustration is the "feeling that we shall not have time to finish."  His solution is "never, in peace or war, commit your virtue or your happiness to the future.  Happy work is best done by the man who takes his long-term plans somewhat lightly and works from moment to moment 'as to the Lord'....The present is the only time in which any duty can be done or any grace received."  I have always felt this feeling of frustration, and this was a really good reminder, especially in light of the economic situation and the fact we are in college and deciding our majors or careers.  By thinking of the present, we actually do things, we act, instead of just thinking and worrying.  It also reminded me of another quote from Letter XV of The Screwtape Letters:

"The humans live in time but our Enemy destines them to eternity. He therefore, I believe, wants them to attend chiefly to two things, to eternity itself, and to that point of time which they call the Present. For the Present is the point at which time touches eternity. Of the present moment, and of it only, humans have an experience analogous to the experience which our Enemy has of reality as a whole; in it alone freedom and actuality are offered them. He would therefore have them continually concerned either with eternity (which means being concerned with Him) or with the Present—either meditating on their eternal union with, or separation from, Himself, or else obeying the present voice of conscience, bearing the present cross, receiving the present grace, giving thanks for the present pleasure."

By fear, Lewis talks about death and pain.  He said war doesn't make death any more frequent; "100 per cent of us die."  I had never looked at death and war in this way, but it is true because we all will die.  What is the point of fearing.  But there is a benefit of war:  "War makes death real to us....It forces us to remember it."  And when we remember it, we are more aware of our present and of eternity. 

There is a two-fold effect from war.  I agree with Lewis that it makes people realize and face their mortality and give those around them the extra kick to tell others about Christ.  I agree that we should not look at it differently than "normal" life because we can always die in both peace and war times, we always have the weight of eternity on us.  And yet, I feel like one can still look at it differently because the people who are going to war have a higher opportunity to die sooner.  And when they die, they will no longer be able to receive Christ.
 
A quote I really liked was "If men had postponed the search for knowledge and beauty until they were secure the search would never have begun." It really spoke to me because it reminded me that I can not always wait for the perfect opportunity before doing something.  Sometimes, in fact many times, we need to step out in faith.  My counselor from church compared it to landing an airplane.  When your engine dies, the important thing is landing the plane.  It may not be pretty, but if you land the plane, you have done your job. 

Lewis's final sentence is this:  "But if we thought that for some souls, and at some times, the life of learning, humbly offered to God, was, in its own small way, one of the appointed approaches to the Divine reality and the Divine beauty which we hope to enjoy hereafter, we can think so still."