A brief overview of the book: Spirits are pulled from Hell and given the opportunity to journey into the mountains of Heaven to see God. Each spirit from Hell is greated by someone from Heaven to assist them on the long and painful journey. The book follows the path of one spirit walking the path to the Lord while watching others leave behind the Lord for pride and sin. C.S Lewis uses metaphors and symbolism to display how their sin has become who they are emotionally and physically. Each story holds its own realistic pain and sin present today. There are two stories in particular that stuck out to me.

The first tells of a man on this Heaven journey with a lizard sitting on his shoulder. This lizard is described as whispering evils into the mans ear, representing temptation and sin.. a play off of the “devil on the shoulder” thing. The man turns from the mountains, which represent the Lord, and begins heading in the opposite direction. When confronted by his companion on why he turned back, he said this was no place for him and his lizard. He said he believed he could carry on with it, that the lizard promised to be good but he just wouldnt stop. The heavenly creature traveling with the man offers to kill the lizard but the man begins to defend it saying he will “keep it under control.” The lizard says he will give the man “sweet dreams and promises to never do it again”

The hevanly man says “shall I kill it”

He replies “you’d kill me if you did”

“It is not so”

“Why are you hurting me now”

“I never said it wouldn’t hurt you, I said it wouldn’t kill you”

When the man finally accepts the offer of death, the man grows strong and heavenly, while the flailing lizard turns into a white stallion.

How many times has the Lord asked us “may I kill it” and we say no. We believe this lizard on our shoulder is our lifeline, it’s who we are. We believe we can tame it, handle it. We believe the lies it whispers to us about sweet dreams because it does not require faith and pain. We believe that sacrifice will cost us everything. Bit we must remember that the lord is a master of death to life. When he asks “may I kill it?” it’s only because he will turn it into a stallion. He is the master recycler. What was once the man’s excuse for return became his means of transportation to the Lord rather than from him. Many Christians believe that with Christianity becomes painlessness. But the Lord is not calling us to painlessness. He is saying “I never said this wouldn’t hurt you” I never said this wouldn’t be hard, I said this wouldn’t kill you. The lord calls us to give up our lifeline lizards only for him to provide a stallion. This man’s weakness ultimately made him stronger and more powerful the second he said yes and surrendered. What is a lizard compared to a stallion? Know that the struggles, the lizards on your shoulder, the Lord has a plan for those to move you faster and farther than you imagined possible. Give up pride and fear. give up false promises and say yes to the Lord request to transform.