Grief Is Like Fear

C.S. Lewis and the emotional kinship of grief and fear.

Grief and fear feel similar.

No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear. I’m not afraid, but the sensation is like being afraid. The same fluttering in the stomach, the same restlessness, the yawning.

I keep on swallowing.

A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis

I write this post for my friends and Istoria supporters who have experienced the sudden loss of a loved one through death, divorce, or disaster.

Grief is like fear.

Grief feels like fear. Grief captivates the mind like fear. Grief paralyzes like fear.

Your grief can never be quantified, but it can be described.

The grief you feel from the death of one feels the same as grief in the death of many.

Likewise, the fear you feel from the threat of your death is similar to the fear you feel from a potential world Armageddon.

Every day, we must learn to face our fears - and our grief.

C.S. Lewis and His Wife, Joy

Joy Davidman, Poet and Author

C.S. Lewis is my 20th-century intellectual Christian hero.

In his book, A Grief Observed, Lewis reflects on his wife’s death, Joy Davidman Lewis.

How C.S. Lewis and Joy Davidman came to be married is a story of grace, mercy, and love. Joy Davidman was a divorced American mother (with two children). She was also Jewish. A former atheist and communist, she came to faith in Christ, but her marriage fell apart after her conversion.

Joy came to London in November of 1953. She’d read some of Lewis’ works and had begun to correspond with him. In Joy’s min, she was in love with the famous Christian bachelor C.S. Lewis.

Mr. Lewis saw Joy as only a good friend, albeit the most intellectual woman he’d ever met.

C.S. Lewis financially helped Joy and her children after she arrived in London. One of the ways he helped was to provide a place to stay, and through his generosity, a “civil marriage” without sexual union commenced.

C.S. Lewis admired Joy, but he wasn’t “in love.”

C.S. Lewis and His Grief

C.S. Lewis and his wife, Joy.

In 1956, three years after moving to London, Joy was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

The prognosis of Joy’s death hit C.S. Lewis very hard. The prospect of losing Joy made Mr. Lewis realize he loved Joy.

C.S. Lewis proposed marriage, and they were “officially married” in the Anglican church.

Less than three years later, in July of 1960, Joy died.