Tag: Humor

C.S. Lewis spent 29 years in Oxford, and although we had visited Oxford before, we had not fully explored the sites of the life of C.S. Lewis. Today we did.

Thanks to the C.S. Lewis Foundation for publishing a wonderful self-guided C.S. Lewis walking tour of Oxford on its website. It directs you to the places Lewis lived, worked, and worshipped, as well as the place of his conversion, all in a very orderly fashion. You can find the walking tour guide here.

We began at Blackwells, one of the oldest and largest bookstores in the world, which sits between two pubs Lewis often visited with J.R.R. Tolkien and other friends: The White Horse Inn and the Kings Arms. We then followed Holywell Street to the place where Lewis stayed his first night in Oxford.

The best stop on the tour though was Magdalen College, where we saw (from outside) the room in the “New Building” where Lewis converted to theism in 1929, later writing, “I gave in and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all of England.”

Continue reading “England Travel Journal – Day 3”

We started our first day in England at Windsor Castle, which, none of us knew until we got there, was founded by William the Conqueror, one of the subjects of our tour. Just a coincidence, I’m sure.

Inside, we visited St. George’s Chapel, where we saw tombs of kings and queens of England. The highlight was the tomb of Queen Elizabeth II, England’s longest serving monarch, who died in 2022. Reportedly, she prayed daily and read her Bible and considered herself a servant of King Jesus, which is a testimony to the leavening work of the Kingdom in the country we will be studying on this tour.

After leaving Windsor, we drove a few miles to Runnymede, home of the signing of the Magna Carta, where British nobles forced King John to acknowledge certain rights, including trial by jury, as well as the rule of law. This is stuff that gets us lawyers very excited.

There are actually two Runnymedes. There is the commercialized place, where you can buy a cappuccino and see the JFK, American Bar Association, and Duke of Cambridge monuments. And then there’s a place called Ankerwycke.

Ankerwycke can be found not far away on the other side of the Thames, at the end of a narrow, poorly marked road at the end of which is a small car park. To find the actual spot where the Magna Carta may have been signed requires a trek through a field with no signs or markings, except “Bull in field.”

Continue reading “England Travel Journal – Day 2”

Day 1 is always a travel day on GSB study tours. I usually focus on all the inconveniences of travel because they seem to preoccupy my thoughts. But this time I was distracted by something else.

The Greater Houston Area, all in, has about 6 million people. Given the number of people, it is unusual to see someone you know when you are out and about in the city.

So, I’m at the gate in the Houston airport waiting to board our flight to London, and I look across the way and see an employment attorney I know waiting to board a flight to Amsterdam. She is, in fact, one of the two employment attorneys in Houston to whom I refer plaintiff’s employment cases. So, I walked over and we chatted, both noting the coincidental nature of the meeting.

The GSB team and I then boarded our plane to London. As I am getting settled in my seat, I look up and see the person in the seat in front of me is an attorney/mediator I know, who is also from Houston. She is one of 5 mediators I typically use to mediate employment cases. She is also the mother-in-law of another employment attorney in Houston I have known for years. We both commented on the coincidental meeting, got caught up, and then settled into our seats for the nine-hour flight to London.

After arriving at London’s Heathrow airport, we picked up our rental car and headed to our first destination, the town of Windsor, where the GSB team planned to visit Windsor Castle.

As we are walking up the street toward the castle entrance, I see an attorney I know from Houston, an attorney many consider to be the best personal injury attorney in Houston, perhaps in Texas. We’ve known each other for years. He refers employment cases to me, and I refer personal injury cases to him.

Continue reading “England Travel Journal – Day 1”

But there is no law against imaging yourself on a journey to a far-away land every morning for 3-5 minutes. There is no law against it unless, of course, you are driving a car or operating other heavy machinery. Augustine of Hippo (not Canterbury) said the world is a book, and those who don’t travel read only a page. But if you read this blog every day for the next 14 days, even if you don’t physically travel, you will have read at least two pages.

Second, if I do my job you should be able to use each blog post as a devotional. So, bring your Bible or your phone. If the Lord anoints what I write, who knows what He might do in you. If you don’t like devotionals, you are at the right place. I don’t like devotionals either, and I never use them. But this will not be like any devotional you have read. There will be Kingdom history, commentary on the lives of men and women who changed the world for King Jesus, and the foundation of it all will be the Word of God, which is sharper than a two-edged sword and able to cut between soul and spirit, joint and marrow, and judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Hebrews 4:12.

Continue reading “England Travel Journal – Prologue”