The Cause of Pain

"God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world." C.S. Lewis The Problem with Pain

Lewis above any other Inkling deals with the subject of pain the most. While Tolkien is more subtle about the subject. Lewis comes in full swing to leave us with more conscious impact on the matter. It is of course clear that both Lewis and Tolkien view pain as something that is caused by our lack of ability to do the right things. Though evil existed. It was really man's desire that ended up causing our pain. In Lord of the Rings, Isildur kept the ring and by that choice, doomed his descendants into being weaken and unable to withstand the temptations of the ring and their greediness. Not only that but it was that choice that lead to the events of Sauron's War in years to come. All the death, loss, destruction and pain Middle Earth would have to endure was because of this.



This event in The Lord of the Rings gives us a great picture of how exactly sin in our world works. Sin is the cause of our pain. This was understood by Tolkien and Lewis. They understood our nature conflicts which then causes the pain. So many people might want to blame God for all the misery in our world. However the truth is clear that is us, we cause this pain, this suffering. When you understand that it is sin that causes this pain we can see that some degree while the sin is not good, the pain however can be. It is the pain according to Lewis that really shows us something is wrong. It shows that there is something not right. Of course some of you might ask how is this so, for example if pain tell us things like something is wrong. Why are not more people listening? Well because that is problem with pain when we see it. Just sin breeds more sin, pain in the long run does as well. To me it seems perfectly understandable that the Holy Spirit can use pain as a means to call our attention. When we suffer we realize that something is wrong. It is in that moment that one can hear truth, and see their sin and the reality of the world as is. However just as their is room for one to hear and see truth there is also the same room to continue in pain and ignorance. It is of course in our fallen nature to see we look for things to fill the void, and to numb the pain. This causes many people, to seek things like other religions, desires of the flesh, the lure of material things and many more. It is in our human nature to gravitate to these sins. To these false gods.

Our pain while yes it can be used to help show our sin and guilt. As well as means to share the good news of Jesus Christ who died for us. It is also the same pain that leads us to further desolation. As Christians we understand that why all are in pain not all know that they are. So we can see in both Lewis's and Tolkien's works that pain was a major theme. Pain was something they experienced and shaped them as the rest of us. They understood that the root of that pain is human inability to make good choices. Mankind's conflict with God and each other that causes the pain that all experience. They understood that pain was afflicted on ourselves and others and that is what starts the journey for their characters and for them. That is the journey we are starting here and to see how these topics both in fiction and philosophical works as well in theology. I think it also a perfect place to start with the unbeliever. Pain is something we all share, it effects us differently but we all make the same mistakes. We all are in need of not only healing but redemption and thats what Jesus promised we would and does give us. This does not mean we do not still have the scars of it. Just as Frodo, we still carry that wound. The wound we received in our natural birth, but just as Frodo sailed to a new home to be restored.

So will we

The Old with the New

"Still round the corner there may wait, A new road or a secret gate."

J.R.R. Tolkien




The video above is a clip from the film Shadowlands, a film on C.S. Lewis later years. It shows him with his fellow Inklings at the Eagle and Child pub in Oxford nicknamed The Bird. It gives an example of just how conversations they had could of have been like over food and ale. The men would sit and talk. These meetings which usually occured on Tuesday's ( i.e reason for blog name)would go over a wide arrange of topics. Some of the most popular were fiction, especially fantasy fiction. They looked at quite a few topics in the celebration of the conversation. So here and now I say we talk, we have our own conversations. Let's not just talk about what they talked about but lets see what things we can discover. I use them as an example seeing as some of the topics they talked about are usefull in how maybe we can talk about life. The hope is that we can find ways in discussing and yes confessing what we know to a world lost in its post modern relativism. Lost in the hope we have in Christ Jesus, lost the values that make us better people, that make us be a light to the world. Most of the people who will read this will most likely be Christian. Most of them will be Lutheran, but the hope is to see how we can use the topics and language of the Inklings in brining these important topics back. Topics we will go over, like pain, suffering, evil, sin, redemption and life. C.S. Lewis was one who understood that some could be taught truth if sometimes we use a different sitting. Let us see how we can benefit from and help others benefit from the narrative of the Inklings.