A Mere Christian (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780985823924)

EARLY IN 2012 at the age of twenty-four, my youngest daughter Laura Michelle passed away. She was severely disabled from birth, and her ongoing physical problems became increasingly intense right up to her sudden passing. Stacy and I had been married almost thirty-five years then, and were both solid Christians since early childhood. Like a red hot forge, Laura's illness burned away thoughts and ideas which were wrong-headed and even destructive. Everything we believed was reweighed and remeasured. The accumulated dross of daily living was discarded as we became stronger and deeper in our faith. For several years even prior to her passing, I had been listening to Mere Christianity every day on my half-hour commute to and from work. Later I found Knox Chamblin's wonderful iTunes U course on C. S. Lewis and began listening to it as well. Late in 2012 our small congregation at Senoia United Methodist Church began a turbulent change in pastors. Some of us faired poorly through it and it made me see the need for our small body of believers to understand what Lewis and Chamblin had been teaching me. Early in 2013, I started teaching Mere Christianity in our adult Sunday School class. I think it was then that I realized why I had been schooled by these wonderful men whose words of truth echo beyond their passing. By no means do I claim to be anything at all other than that I'm a true believer in Jesus Christ. What has come out of all those hours of study and teaching I have now put down for all to benefit. That is my only goal. Ron Smith, MD A Mere Christian March 26, 2014