Helena Sorensen is a new friend Gina and I recently met in Nashville. She is the author of Shiloh, a Young Adult fantasy I am eager to read. I asked Helena if she would share a post with us and I am very grateful for what she wrote. It gets at something we value so deeply here at Story Warren. Thank you, Helena. –Sam
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I really don’t know how Lewis did it, how he stuffed so many little gems between the pages of The Chronicles of Narnia. As a child, I saw them sparkling, and they were lovely. As an adult, having done a bit of living and then returned to the tales, I’ve been able to pluck out the shiny things and put them in my pocket. I found one recently in the closing chapters of The Silver Chair.
For those unfamiliar with The Silver Chair, [spoilers in this paragraph] this story follows Jill Pole and Eustace Scrubb on a quest to find the lost prince of Narnia, Prince Rilian. Along with Puddleglum, the children free the prince from his long imprisonment in the Underworld. In the process, they help Rilian kill the witch/queen/sorceress who had bewitched and enslaved him. But it’s not until the company escapes the Underworld and returns to Narnia that they piece together the whole of the witch’s plan. At the very end of their quest, they realize “how she had dug right under Narnia and was going to break out and rule it through Rilian: and how he had never dreamed that the country of which she would make him king (king in name, but really her slave) was his own country.”
That passage stopped me cold, the strength of my reaction seemingly disproportionate to the words I’d read. I moved on to the next chapter, while my son listened and squirmed. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that some great, eternal bell had tolled, and I was changed.
Perhaps most of you have gotten this revelation already, and I’m slow on the uptake. It wouldn’t be the first time. But Lewis’s lost prince and the bleak future that awaited him are finally getting through to me. I’m realizing a terrible truth.
I have lived as a slave in my own kingdom.
In this little house, with the front closet that’s always filling with damp and mildew, with the warped boards in the floor beside the washing machine, with the shelves spilling over with books, and the walls covered with photographs of chunky babies…in this place, the place where God has given me some measure of dominion, I have lived like a slave. I’ve seen every mess, every meal, every load of laundry as a link in a chain. I’ve answered endless questions and filled endless mornings and changed endless diapers as acts of penance. The Enemy is so subtle, and I am so easily bewitched. Ever he comes to “steal and kill and destroy,” and I relinquish my freedom, my authority, my joy. I let him take it all, without a fight, without a word of protest. That’s slave mentality for you.
Three lines from an old Henry Van Dyke poem keep running around in my head.
“This is my work; my blessing, not my doom; Of all who live, I am the one by whom This work can best be done in the right way.”
My days are filled to overflowing with work. It’s very rarely the neat, organized, sitting-behind-a-desk variety. More often, it’s the smelly, frustrating, down-on-your-knees variety. But my work is my blessing, not my doom. Of all who live, I am the one best suited to bring order and beauty to this little kingdom.
“It is for freedom that Christ set us free.” (Gal. 5:1) Lewis knew it. He knew also how often we become entangled in yokes of bondage. One thin veil of lies, one small net of self-pity, one little spell cast over us, and we forfeit our freedom. Prince Rilian was given the rule of a country. I’ve been given rule over a little house and some little souls. It’s a high calling, a blessed rule, a joyful endeavor. If only I have eyes to see it.
“By entering into the world and confronting the Evil One with the fullness of Divine Goodness, the way was opened for us to live in the world, no longer as victims, but as free men and women, guided, not by optimism, but by hope.” –Henri Nouwen
“Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.” Romans 8:21
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Featured Image by Paul Boekell
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Lovely, Helena. This is perfect food for a Monday morning when there is just…one…more…week…til Thanksgiving break. 🙂
Thank you, Kelly! I feel like I’m just continuing the theme from your post about perspective last week. It was great! 🙂
Helena, I adore this.
The Silver Chair is my favorite but I’d never thought this before. Thank you for turning this thought over and putting words and flesh on it. May we all have eyes to see…
Thanks, Ming. If I had been as insightful as you, I would have loved The Silver Chair more the first time around. 🙂
I love this message! We all need to be reminded.
Thanks, Brenda. I might need to tape this on my bathroom mirror. 🙂
Wow–that’s so true. Thanks for this reminder of truth.
Thanks, Sofia!
Love!
Thanks!
Good, good stuff. It’s amazing how regularly I need a reminder like this. Thanks for sharing, Helena!
Thanks, Loren! You are already a great encouragement to me in this arena, and I know to many others.
Thanks for sharing this, Helena. I’ve been feeling the same way recently, but the way you expressed it really helps! God help us to open our children’s eyes to the beauty and wonder of the kingdom they’ve been given all around them.
Glenn, I hadn’t even thought about the kingdom my kids have been given! Hah! You just slapped a whole new layer on this thing. 🙂
I’m sitting in the airport with tear-stained face. Thanks for this.
🙂
LOVE this!
Thank you, Caroline!
I so appreciate your heart for this topic and for the insight you share here. I have too often called all of this Kingdom work my penance and am grateful for the reminder that it is gift!!
Thanks, Kris!
Ok. I know this comment is so late, but I am new to Story Warren and feel like I am changed already by the things I have read here. Inspired perhaps is a better word. This was beautiful. I just finished the whole Narnia series on Saturday…somehow I never made it through the Silver Chair or the Last Battle as a child…and I was blown away by some of the beauty in those two books. This post however is now going to be a favorite on the subject. Thank you!
I’m so glad! Welcome to Story Warren. 🙂
So glad this showed up in my newsfeed – else I’d have missed it altogether. Thanks for the reminder/encouragement/thought-food in this.
Thank you for this. You have brought me to tears and reminded me of my purpose, too often forgotten.