Recently, my family and I were listening to the Focus on the Family recordings of C.S. Lewis’ famous series, The Chronicles of Narnia. As we listened during several long car trips, I was struck again by the beauty and simplicity of the tales of Narnia. Lewis had a knack for showing children how to know Aslan as a wonderful and powerful Lion that loves them while eventually pointing out to them that they would need to know Him by a different name in our world, thus completing the analogy of Aslan to Jesus.
I was struck this time through the Chronicles, though, by a phrase I noticed three separate times and to which I gave the title of this short article – “take the adventure that awaits you.”
The times I (at least) noticed these were when Prince Rilian in The Silver Chair encourages Eustace, Jill, and Puddleglum to join him as they seek the overworld. Secondly, both in The Last Battle when King Tirian uses the phrase as he goes to fight the Calormens in a last-ditch battle to save Narnia and when his good friend the unicorn urges him to adventure once they have reached “the real Narnia” and need to go “further up and further in”
(As an aside, if you don’t know what this last portion is referring to, you need to not simply read The Last Battle, but all the Chronicles – it will make joy-filled sense then!).
So, why is this phrase so important and why is it something worth pondering?
As we prepare to start another school year, we all have an adventure awaiting us and we each have so much to do, learn, study, and ponder over the next ten months – and beyond. If we do not go into this school year (or any school year, in the adventuresome spirit described with knightly virtue in Narnia, we will be missing so much.
When Prince Rilian encouraged his compatriots to take the adventure that awaited them, there was no certainty as to the outcome. As a matter of fact, when they were to leave the witch’s castle to face the Earthmen, less than certainty was on their minds, but they were determined, with great thanks to one of the most stirring speeches from Puddleglum, to die in the effort to reach and defend Narnia.
Similarly, when King Tirian encouraged and led the battle on Stable Hill, they faced near certain defeat, but rallied onward all the same, as they knew they were defending both Narnia and Aslan against the greatest of odds and enemies.
Finally, Jewel the Unicorn encouraged the very same King Tirian to go further up and further in and take a new great adventure to learn more about the “real Narnia” and to experience all the joy and happiness promised by Aslan.
With the start of a new school year, let us each look at the chance to take the adventure that awaits us with a firm reliance on God’s guidance and a determination to point our students and ourselves to the Lord in all things and in all ways. Then, the adventure is truly all the time, effort, and struggle.