Christ, the source of our uniqueness!

In “The Three Personal God,” Lewis explains that “it is only the Christians who have any idea of how human souls can be taken into the life of God and yet remain themselves—in fact, be very much more themselves than they were before.” This rings true in my own experience…walking with the Lord and yielding him a place in my heart has made my individuality clearer and more satisfying than ever before. As Lewis also writes in “The New Men”: “Until you have given up yourself to Him you will not have a real self. Sameness is to be found most among the most ‘natural’ men, not among those who surrender to Christ” (Mere Christianity).

Although they clearly have the same formidable and eternal Christ in their hearts, there are no more different people, for example, than great Christians like St. Francis and George MacDonald or Hannah Whitall Smith and Mother Teresa. And I think that the rock analogy that I used to open this chapter explains their uniqueness. …If the well known rock promontories in the world (such as El Kapitan and Gibraltar and Diamond Head) were put into a half light that turned them into silhouettes, they would still appear formidable and powerful in their mass and stability, but they would look pretty much the same. When the sun’s light once again plays across their “faces,” however, they not only show themselves to be unique from each other, but these great rocks change in that uniqueness moment by moment as the day passes.

Similarly, when our lives are founded on the rock, Christ, they have the same stability and strength and permanence of his presence that comforts all Christians. But as the light of the Saviour shines into our hearts, it streams across our souls, highlighting each of their various fissures and ridges in a unique way. And this wonderful new individuality, the individuality that God loves, is still buttressed with Christ’s eternity and soundness. (Power of Yielding, “Individuality”)