After Prayers/ Lie Cold

I was first introduced to this poem just the other day during our meeting at the Resturante. I found it completely confusing the first time I read it but as I read the poem over again it started to make since. I believe that the first part of the poem, "Arise my body, my small body", refers to C.S. Lewis getting off of his knees after praying so that he may slip into the covers of his bed. After his time in prayer, he refers to the Lord as being merciful as He forgives his sins. Throughout the whole poem he addresses himself as pale, small, puppet-like and mortal, as to define humans without prayer as being dead to their soul and a puppet to the world. I love how C.S. Lewis refers to himself after praying as "emptied and clean, a garment washed and folded up", to point out the fact that when we do come to God with our confessions we are emptied out and made a new from all of the dirt that hindered our life.

Whenever I get into bed at night I am always freezing because my roommate keeps the air conditioning on cold and all I want to do is warm myself up with my sheets. I crawl into bed and finally get comfortable, and then it hits me. I forgot to turn off the light, inevitably realizing that I am going to be freezing once again. This is what I feel C.S. Lewis was trying to interpret when writing the second half of his poem, when he say's, "be not too quickly warm again". Even though Christ forgives our sins, we, as human beings well ultimately sin again and that once warm feeling will turn cold if we continue to live in sin. Humans are frail beings, we brake under pressure and give in to temptation. We mess up by our own, by "the riot of our blood and breath", enabling us to sin once more. However, just like I do at night, humans long for the warmth of freedom, they never want to stay in a pit of destruction or a bondage of sin, and this is what brings them back to their knees before God.

Instead of ending the poem in a depressed state, casting all humans cold/ dead to sin, I believe that life returns to the beginning of this poem. Life is a cycle. We go through trials and we may sin but ultimately if we repent before God, He is will forgive us, just like C.S. Lewis stated, "We are forgiven". Not we might be forgiven, we ARE forgiven. Yes, we might sin again but God looks at our heart. When we come before Him and He sees that we are sincere, He is faithful to forgive and not only forgive but to restore. In this, we find hope to live and in this we are able to find peace to succeed.