Today, November 22nd, is a major day in history regardless of who you are.
It is well known as the day in 1963 that John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th U.S. President, was shot and killed in Dallas, Texas. On the same day Aldous Leonard Huxley, author of the book Brave New World, died in Los Angeles after a long battle with cancer. Clive (Jack) Staples Lewis died on the same day at his home, The Kilns, in Oxford. Lewis, along with G.K. Chesterton, was one of the premier Christian apologists of the mid twentieth century.
Kennedy dreamed of a utopian society. Huxley, in A Brave New World, wrote about it. And Lewis in his apologetics, his children’s stories in the Narnia Chronicles, and his numerous other publications spoke of a world where, in relationship with God, people could live beyond all other aspirations.
I remember the time and place when a schoolmate told me that Kennedy had been shot. And each year, on November 22nd I pause at the time of Lewis’ passing, remember him, and give thanks.
I invite you to remember these same things on this day.
Yours,
Jeremy Bell
P.S. In my time at Fuller, my wife Kerry and I belonged to C.S. Lewis Society of Southern California. During our stay there this society was populated mostly by Baptists and Roman Catholics.