"I'm On Aslan's Side"

I spent a few days this week under a pretty heavy cloud of warfare. It was the sort of stuff that just seems to cut you off from God. You try and pray and you have to fight tooth and nail just to get a glimpse of His presence. You try and read your Bible and it just seems dry. Those of you who've experienced this sort of warfare know exactly what I'm talking about.

Going through a few days of fighting this spiritual blockade is a brilliant reminder of how we need to daily fight for our freedom. We need to guard our hearts with the utmost vigilance and constantly be centering ourselves on God. In the middle of these spiritual storms it is very possible to walk on water but only if we keep our eyes fixed on Christ.

As I was in the middle of this, I kept thinking about C.S. Lewis's The Silver Chair. In that book Jill, Eustace and the eternally pessimistic marsh-wiggle Puddleglum are sent by Aslan to find the lost prince Rilian. Eventually, they do find him but he's held captive underground by a witch. As they try to escape with him, he puts a spell over them and begins to tell them that there is no such thing as Aslan, or the sun, or the trees, or any world besides her dark and miserable underground kingdom. Her magic is like a dark cloud cutting them off from the truth. And it almost works. Then Puddleglum, barely grasping to the last shred of truth he can find, gives this amazing speech:

Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one. And that's a funny thing, when you come to think of it. We're just babies making up a game, if you're right. But four babies playing a game can make a play-world which licks your real world hollow. That's why I'm going to stand by the play-world. I'm on Aslan's side even if there isn't any Aslan to lead it. I'm going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn't any Narnia.

How wonderful it is that our subjective experiences don't define reality. When I was battling earlier this week, there were a few times when everything I've learned from God recently felt untrue. It felt like make believe. But in my heart I knew that even if it was make believe, living as though it was true made for a better reality than the hell the enemy was trying to sell me on.

God will sometimes feel far away, or simply altogether not there. When that happens resolve yourself to be on Aslan's side even if Aslan doesn't exist. The rich and satisfying life Jesus promises in John 10:10 might seem like a naive dream and his kingdom like a fantasy. Live as a Narnian even if there isn't any Narnia. Fight for your freedom and remember the truth.

Remember.