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Re: Chapter 3 - The Arrival

PostPosted: September 7th, 2010, 11:50 pm
by nomad
Oh, yes please. At least three more weeks. We can get through another chapter anyways.

Re: Chapter 3 - The Arrival

PostPosted: September 9th, 2010, 3:28 pm
by Nerd42
Facebook won't allow me to retain my anonymity.

Re: Chapter 3 - The Arrival

PostPosted: September 9th, 2010, 4:35 pm
by Matthew Whaley

Re: Chapter 3 - The Arrival

PostPosted: September 9th, 2010, 7:08 pm
by nomad

Re: Chapter 3 - The Arrival

PostPosted: September 9th, 2010, 11:03 pm
by Matthew Whaley
I see what you mean, Nomad, "The hell we know is better than hell we don't know" or "I know it's not good, but it's safe" as it says in the song. Jesus said, " If anyone would be my disciple, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." Getting past our pride is the hardest thing, but if we can do that, we can overcome our fears and really know joy.

Re: Chapter 3 - The Arrival

PostPosted: September 11th, 2010, 4:41 pm
by paminala
I think there is still an element of distrust on the Big guy's part. He is waiting to have the door slammed in his face. This is not a generous person and so he is fundamentally distrustful of generosity. I suspect that if the driver had told him he had only 1 hour to get back to the bus he would immediately have started scheming to stay longer. He is only happy with what he takes, not with what he is given.

The lesson he must learn is to open his heart and accept that which is offered freely so that he will be able to give of himself in the same spirit.

Re: Chapter 3 - The Arrival

PostPosted: September 14th, 2010, 4:31 am
by nomad
Good point, pam. The Big guys is also a bully, as seen by his hitting the short guy in line and then telling the narrator and the other guy on the bus to shut up. He's very defensive of his rights, without caring for anyone else's. I think the "awkward pause" after the driver says they don't have to go back is because, as Nerd wrote, most of them aren't sure what they want to do. And they would have preferred to be told to go back or stay, rather than have to make the choice themselves.

Re: Chapter 3 - The Arrival

PostPosted: September 23rd, 2010, 6:20 am
by nomad

Re: Chapter 3 - The Arrival

PostPosted: September 25th, 2010, 7:24 am
by Kanakaberaka
When I mentioned the premise of this book being the fantasy of a bus trip from Hell to Heaven, many of the folks I talked to were interested. Yet when I told them that many of the damned chose to get back on the bus for the return trip to hell, the same listeners could not understand why. Of course I had not given them all the details invented by Lewis. The Great Divorce explains so much about God's Grace, and why so many of us are reluctant to take Him up on His offer to us.

Re: Chapter 3 - The Arrival

PostPosted: September 27th, 2010, 3:04 pm
by paminala
Lewis seems to look at Heaven from a slightly different angle than many people think of it.
He sees it as a tremendous gift that, although it is freely given, is not without cost.
Many of the people on the bus, when they realize that they cannot simply stay as they are and move to higher ground, are not willing to bear that cost.
I believe that it is much the same with people in general. They want to call themselves Christian but they don't really want to change their lives.

Re: Chapter 3 - The Arrival

PostPosted: September 29th, 2010, 5:23 am
by nomad
Exactly, Pam. And I think Lewis is more perceptive than most who talk about the cost of being faithful or however they phrase it. Most of the time they mention really obvious things, like giving up your carousing or letting go of your material wealth. But Lewis digs deeper and shows with each character the pride or fear or vanity that keeps them from trusting and risking.

Re: Chapter 3 - The Arrival

PostPosted: September 30th, 2010, 7:06 pm
by Nerd42
I would keep going with this if we could move it to a forum that allows real-life anonymity.

Re: Chapter 3 - The Arrival

PostPosted: September 30th, 2010, 10:53 pm
by nomad
You could retain some anonymity on fb by using a pseudo name and using a picture of Squeeker or whatever his name was from Saved by the Bell. I haven't been on any of the other Narnia based sites, so I don't know how good they are at this sort of thing. Course, it remains to be seen how well fb works for this sort of thing too.

Thanks for the discussion. Fair winds and following seas to all.