Surprised by Joy!

Are you surprised by joy?  Do you take great delight in those moments of realising that you are happy?  A friend of mine was recently talking about a little 2 year old acquaintance of hers and her exuberant delight in being swung up and down and reading a book with her.  She talked about the wonderful way in which children can be utterly delighted by something and surprised by it.  I love that feeling, being aware that I am full of joy and enjoying that sense of awareness.

In the Bible it says something of the lines of "Be like a child," and I love this.  We're always in so much of a hurry to grow up but actually revelling in our child-like existence or our innocence is a blessing.  I've always loved being the one who was not in a hurry to grow up out of my friends as a teen.  CBC says to me sometimes that I must think I'm about 12 or something.  Perhaps?  But I'm happy with that.  I love being surprised by Joy.  I love the unexpected feeling of delight.  Like we experienced on Monday when a gloomy day turned into the most gorgeous sun-drenched surprise!
And even small things!  I was delighted by the lovely comments left by 17 of you on Monday!  It was totally unexpected and I loved realising that feeling of excitement!

Are you ever surprised by joy?


Anyway, what prompted this thought was my completion of book number 19 of 2012.  C.S. Lewis's autobiographical account.  The man behind the Narnia books, The Screwtape letters, Voyage to Venus, The four loves, The problem of pain and Mere Christianity.  In this delightful account, he shares details of his life and how he came to turn from being an atheist to being a Christian believer.  It is interesting to chart how we went from an Irish background, being the son of the daughter of a priest but not really having much faith.  The school years through various establishments, show how he formed the wrong image of God but by trying to serve him in a laborious fashion through big-long laboured prayers, came to regard it subconsciouslt as a pest, a bore and something best.  An obsession with the occult and new age ideas from a Matron, seeing a fallen priest, seeing the horrors of a boys Public school, a tutor who was fervently unbelieving, his own lack of understanding of the nature of joy, seeing other unbelievers and the eternal turned him into a fervent anti-Christian.  The account gives the reader in addition, ideas as to where some of the imagination and imagery for his epic Narnia tale came from (though via a long alteration)- his stories and games of 'The animal kingdom and India' with his brother (where animals talked), a love of the sagas of Scandinavia, Wagner.  How his only proper friendship began when he was already well into his teens- a friend Arthur (perhaps the hero of Perelandra was named after him?) who taught him the love of the homely.   The accounts of his time at Oxford, as a classical scholar and how eventually,

In the Trinity Term of  1929, I gave in and admitted that God was God... perhaps the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.

Throughout the book, a love of poetry is evident, through the quotes from a variety of international sources provide an excellent introduction and commentary to his thoughts and influences.   He is clever, witty, intelligent, honest and makes no bones about anything but is clear and succinct and totally worth the effort of reading.  Perhaps that's why all his other books are brilliant, particularly The Problem of pain or The screwtape letters.
Warning- I tend to find with C.S. Lewis, you need to pretty much keeping reading a little, consistently, daily.  If you leave the book for a week or two you will lose the train of thought.  That said, this one was fine.
Here it is:
19. C.S. Lewis Surprised by joy.

 
Have you read it?  Have you read any of his other books?