lewis on the train

I've spent a significant portion of time this past week riding the train back and forth to South Auckland.  The train is definitely not the quickest or most efficient way to get to South Auckland but it provides some interesting views of the city as well as a good chunk of time to sit and read.  Riding back and forth yesterday I took God in the Dock by C.S. Lewis with me.  I love to read and re-read Lewis' works.  I find him to be insightful, profound, practical, and witty; and even when I don't agree with him he always forces me to pause and think.  Here are some snippets from yesterday's train reading:

"The hard sayings of the Lord are wholesome to those only who find them hard."

"An egg which came from no bird is no more 'natural' than a bird which had existed from all eternity.  And since the egg-bird-egg sequence leads us to no plausible beginning, is it not reasonable to look for the real origin somewhere outside the sequence altogether?  You have to go outside the sequence of engines into the world of men, to find the real originator of the Rocket.  Is it not equally reasonable to look outside Nature for the real Originator of the natural order?" 

"Praying for particular things', said I, 'always seems to me like advising God how to run the world.  Wouldn't it be wiser to assume that He knows best?'  'On the same principle,' said he, 'I suppose you can never ask a man next to you to pass the salt, because God knows best whether you ought to have salt or not.  And I suppose you never take an umbrella, because God knows best whether you ought to be wet or dry.'  'That's quite different,' I protested.  'I don't see why,' said he.  'The odd thing is that He should let us influence the course of events at all.  But since He let's us do it in one way I don't see why He shouldn't let us do it in another.'