In today’s episode I want to discuss how to find hope, comfort, and strength during times of chaos, danger, and unrest. We can learn an interesting source by studying something that happened in England during World War II. The BBC gave a series of wartime radio broadcasts to help the people be able to endure the fear, the loss, and the danger they were facing. These broadcasts were delivered over the radio from 1942-1944. And the message was so powerful and influential that they were later published into book that is now called “Mere Christianity”.
Let me give a little bit of historical context that led to the creation of these broadcasts. During World War II, the German Nazis dropped bombs on London and other strategic cities across Britain for eight months straight. This intense bombing campaign was called The Blitz which is the German word for Lightning. This constant bombing created a situation where not only the soldiers were at war, but the ordinary civilians suffered as their small island nation was bombarded by four hundred planes a night and suddenly their cities and their homes became the front lines of a battle. Can you imagine what that would be like? Their homes, their country, their freedom, their possessions, their families, and their lives were in constant mortal peril. It’s a time that would be really scary with very real danger.
It was during this time that the British Broadcasting Corporation, or BBC, invited a man named C.S. Lewis to give a series of talks over the radio. His assignment was to explain, in simple terms, the concept of Christianity. How strange it must have seemed to turn on the radio, which every day brought the war news of death and unspeakable destruction, and also featured one man speaking about decent behavior, fair play, and the importance of knowing right from wrong.
The message that brought comfort and strength during the Blitz during World War II can also bring comfort and strength during the conflicts that we endure today.
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