who is taking notes for my biography?

i have been reading a.n. wilson's biography of c.s. lewis. ive enjoyed it for several reasons. but mainly because he never idealizes this man that has become an idol in many communities. c.s. lewis was many things; a child prodigy, an atheist, a lover of literature, an amateur poet, a drunken debater, a singer of lewd songs in dusty taverns & one of the most popular Christian apologists ever. he lived with a woman old enough to be his mother for much of his adult life. his best friend since childhood was gay. his religion was filtered through the north Ireland protestant politics of his youth. he could be a bully. he had very specific ideas about a woman's place.

ive fallen completely in love with him.

hes flawed. and he gives me hope. i read anne lamott's "traveling mercies" yesterday and walked away with a similar feeling. here is a story of someone's sincere search for a God she always felt but could never name. i can appreciate that. who wants to read about someone's perfect life? how depressing. mine would look dismal in comparison. i want to read about someone else who has struggled and the experiences God gave them.

in relation to yesterday's post, here is an applicable quote from jack on the subject of the nature of the church.



C.S. Lewis wrote:
This is the whole of Christianity. There is nothing else. It is so easy to get muddled about that. It is easy to think that the church has a lot of different objects--education, building, missions, holding services. Just as it is easy to think the State has a lot of different objects--military, political, economic, and what not.But in a way things are much simpler than that. The State exists simply to promote and to protect the ordinary happiness of human beings in this life. A husband and wife chatting over a fire, a couple of friends having a game of darts in a pub, a man reading a book in his own room or digging in his own garden--that is what the State is there for. And unless they are helping to increase and prolong and protect such moments, all the laws, parliaments, armies, courts, police, economics, etc., are simply a waste of time.In the same way the Church exists for nothing else but to draw men [and women] into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became [hu]man for no other purpose. It is even doubtful, you know, whether the whole universe was created for any other purpose.