The Silver Chair: Do you really believe that what you believe is really real?

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Do you really believe that what you believe is really real?  A haunting question, isn’t it? I first wrestled with this question when watching The Truth Project, a series from Focus on the Family that is all about worldview. While C.S. Lewis never had the opportunity to see The Truth Project, I know he wrestled with this question too. I know it because if ever there was a story that crystallizes that question, it is The Silver Chair.

The Silver Chair, fourth book in the Chronicles of Narnia, begins with Eustace Scrubb and a classmate, Jill Pole, as they find their way into Narnia. Jill tries to show off by dancing at the edge of a cliff, which leads to Eustace falling over the edge. Aslan saves him, but to make up for her foolishness, Aslan orders Jill to help in finding the missing Prince Rillian, son of King Caspian. To find him, she will need to follow some very specific signs Aslan gives her.

As she stands on top of the cliff, the Great Lion standing before her and speaking to her, the truth of what he says and her determination to follow his signs is very really. She believes wholeheartedly that she will see what Aslan has told her she will see, and that she will be able to do as he asks.

But once she is reunited with Eustace, everything changes. What she sees is not what she expects to see, and the evidence of her eyes leaves her doubting the truth of what she has been told. It isn’t that she is dense, or that she doesn’t want to follow Aslan’s signs. She’s human, and like all of us, she is prone to missing what is true for what is apparent.

This is part of the curse we live with every day – the inability to see the greater truths because we get so wrapped up in what we can see with our eyes, touch with our hands, and measure with our instruments. Our five senses dominate our perception of reality, and we live and think as though we do not really believe that what we believe is really real.

If I really believe that God uses suffering to teach perseverance and patience, then why do I get grouchy and fed up after just a few days of my back acting up?

If I really believe that God’s design for life on earth is the best, then why do I start to question it every time I read a piece of convincing literature that says the world has it right?

If I really believe that God will help me through any temptation, why am I so loathe to turn to him when my sinful flesh finds something it likes?

And if I really believe that Jesus died to take away all my sin, then why do I still feel guilty?

If I really believe Jesus has prepared a place for me in heaven, why do I still live as though this life is all there is?

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0Her blindness is a picture of ours, when we miss the ways God works in our lives. We say we believe that he will bless us and guide us, but when the evidence of our eyes doesn’t match what we expect God to do, we doubt his goodness, we doubt his guidance, we doubt him. We begin to think that what we see is more real than what he has told us.

Jill and her companions do eventually succeed, but only because of Aslan. The final sign she is to look for is someone who will ask them to do something in his name, and it is when she hears his name that all the doubt and confusion she has faced is shattered. The name of Aslan cuts through the evidence of her eyes and helps her to see what is true.

We can say the same of the name of Jesus. While the evidence of my pain may tell me that God doesn’t really care about me, I see Jesus’ suffering for me, proving his love. While worldly wisdom might suggest that God’s ways are wrong, Jesus’ teaching shows that the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom. While my temptation may seem insurmountable, Jesus offers me his righteous life in place of my failure. While my life is a record of failure and shame, Jesus hangs on the cross and bleeds for me. While science tells me that dead is dead and there is nothing more, there is an empty tomb where Jesus once laid, and my tomb also will be empty.

I don’t need to see these things to know they’re true. I believe them because of Jesus. “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1). The name of Jesus gives me this confidence and assurance.

The climactic moment of The Silver Chair is when the villain, the Lady of the Green Kirtle, has Jill, Eustace, and their strange and dour companion, Puddleglum, trapped. She tries to convince them that they have invented Narnia, invented Aslan, and invented everything but the underground cavern in which they are captives. She wants them to believe that what they see is all there is.

Her challenge is not so different than what we face. There are so many voices all around us telling us that this world is all there is, that we are fools for believing in a God who loves us and promises us a life after death.

Puddleglum is not swayed. He confidently declares:

“Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things–trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one. And that’s a funny thing, when you come to think of it. We’re just babies making up a game, if you’re right. But four babies playing a game can make a play-world which licks your real world hollow. That’s why I’m going to stand by the play-world. I’m on Aslan’s side even if there isn’t any Aslan to lead it. I’m going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn’t any Narnia.”

It isn’t that Puddleglum is entertaining the notion that she is correct; rather, he doubts the evidence of his eyes because he knows in his heart that what is real, though he cannot see it, is so much better. “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (1 Corinthians 4:18). There is something so much better than this world waiting for us, a world so much more important than this one. Let’s stand on Jesus’ side, and live for him, as we wait for the day when what we see and what is true are one and the same.

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