Meditation in a toolshed

“Meditation in a toolshed,” by C.S. Lewis, provides a perspective on the difference between looking at versus looking along something and how this affects people’s understanding of what they believe is truth. I found Lewis’ article to be incredibly insightful. The distinction between experiencing something from the inside and looking at something from the outside is essential to understand the context of people’s arguments and views.

One of the points that struck me the most was Lewis’ question, “which is the ‘true’ or ‘valid’ experience?” He accurately observed that today’s society largely disregards looking along something and considers that looking at an idea from the outside is the way to discern truth. According to this view, looking at something is the most rational way of approaching it and allows us to discern the truth. I think this argument has been used in many contexts to dismiss people’s “looking along” experiences. From reading this article, I believe that to discern the truth you must consider both the experience of looking along and looking at an idea; I do not think you can exclusively rely on one of these ways of looking at an idea. Many people are sincerely convinced of the truth of their beliefs based on their experience. Yet the fact that they are convinced does not, in fact, make it true. They may disregard all outside and rational perspectives that counter their experience. On the other hand, someone looking exclusively from the outside will have an incomplete understanding because they have not experienced what they are claiming to know.

I also believe, as a Christian, that humans cannot reason their way to God by looking at the facts. We may be able to develop an idea of whether God exists and his characteristics based on his creation. However if we merely deduce who God is based on our reasoning, we are creating our own idea of a god, rather than discovering God as he reveals Himself to us through his Holy Spirit. As Christians, the Holy Spirit reveals things to us that we cannot know apart from the Holy Spirit; this means we must constantly be questioning and discerning what is truth from the Holy Spirit, and what is not. Another point is that our faith is not exclusively based on rationality and reason, but neither is it irrational. God has given us the ability to look at something from the outside and to reason; I think we should consider our beliefs from the outside (as much as possible, though we cannot fully remove ourselves from looking along an idea) to evaluate whether our faith is irrational.

I think this article should challenge us to ask ourselves how we are looking at the world and how we have formed our beliefs. Are we committed to our beliefs because it is what we have been taught and we are afraid to question them? Are we rejecting Christian beliefs because we are rejecting anything that is not exclusively based on rationality? Or are we committed to our beliefs because we have asked God to reveal truth, sought truth, and wrestled in faith with questions that come from “looking at” and "looking along" faith?