It pricks, then vanishes, leaving a wake of mystery and longing behind it. It produces longing that weighs heavy on the heart, but it does so with precision and coordination…It dashes in with the agility of a hummingbird claiming its nectar from the flower, and then zips away. 'Joy-that sharp, wonderful Stab of Longing-has a lithe, muscular lightness to it. Shadowlands and Songs of Light Quote of the Day: 'The reader who finds these three episodes of no interest need read this book no further, for in a sense the central story of my life is about nothing else.' Lewis Quote of the Day, from Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life: Allow that longing for Him to become the hottest fire in your heart.Ĭ. Instead, allow the ache to push you deeper into your relationship with God. When little moments of life ─ like the way the light falls on a summer evening ─ stir you with a deep longing that’s hard to define, don’t look to earthly pursuits to fill the void. The Holy Spirit uses this restlessness to awaken spiritual hunger. Believed to be previously unpublished, the letter to a Mrs Ellis was written by Lewis on 19 August 1945, and sees the author unpicking the concept of joy.

True Joy, as Lewis presents it to us, is the ache for something beyond this world.

These deep longings in Lewis’ life ─ these stabs of Joy ─ worked as flashing sign-markers pointing him down the path toward Christ. He would later recognize these sudden aches of longing: a deep spiritual hunger for God ─ not just for an intellectual knowledge of God, but for a real relationship with Him. Surprised by Joy is a sort of autobiography of the famous writer C S Lewis, the author of the famous Narnia childrens books. Lewis recalls three seemingly trivial and disconnected events with a common thread: he experienced a sudden, piercing pang of longing ─ a bittersweet ache and yearning for something far-off, other-worldly, and unnamed during each event. This idea of Joy is not a satisfied desire but an unsatisfied desire ─ a deep longing for God, a hungry pursuit of God’s heart that never ends and is more satisfying than any earthly happiness. Lewis’ autobiography, Surprised by Joy, he tells of experiencing an other-worldly joy ─ a specific Joy that defies our modern understanding. Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life, p.

Surprised by joy by cs lewis