by Dr. U » October 17th, 2007, 1:59 am
I think one reason Lewis is so loved by so many people is his honesty, including in A Grief Observed. While not everyone going through experiences like his loss of Joy Davidman, or other great sorrows of life, may say things like he does in his journal, we certainly feel and think things like that inside.
The first time I read Job, I was more than a little baffled as a young Christian, including why it was in the Bible. Now (past age 50), it's one of my favorite books. Poor Job! He never does get the answers to his questions why everything has fallen apart in his life. He keeps insisting he has done right his whole life - and God even backs him up, both in the dialogue against Satan's accusations that Job knows nothing about, and, at the end of the book, when God tells Job's friends they've sinned by their accusations that Job was being punished for sinful behavior. Job keeps asking for the chance to ask God questions, and when he finally gets his opportunity, God answers his questions with questions (proving God is Jewish). I love how Augustine wrestles at length with the same issue in (I think) City of God, and concludes we cannot have the answers in this life in some of these type of situations, but have to trust that God is good and it will someday make sense.
I think A Grief Observed is like that, it seems like sorrow on top of sorrow and we ache for him, but I so appreciate Lewis for being honest enough to write his struggle with trusting God down for us. And he came through it, too. In fact, perhaps part of his trial was for the benefit of the people who have found wisdom and not given up on God, by reading A Grief Observed, most of them years after Lewis himself had died.