<p><i>Sometime in the spring (Trinity Sunday was May 22 that year, 1929) Lewis came to believe in God, though not yet in Christ:</i></p>
<p>You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him of whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England. I did not then see what is now the most shining and obvious thing; the Divine humility which will accept a convert even on such terms. The Prodigal Son at least walked home on his own feet. But who can duly adore that Love which will open the high gates to a prodigal who is brought in kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance of escape? The words <i>compelle intrare</i>, compel them to come in, have been so abused by wicked men that we shudder at them; but, properly understood, they plumb the depth of the Divine mercy. The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and His compulsion is our liberation. (<i>Surprised by Joy</i>, Chapter 14)</p>
<p>From <i><a href="https://link.biblegateway.com/click/38084213.3254/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYW1hem9uLmNvbS9kcC9CMDAyRUJEUEo2P2llPVVURjgmY2FtcD0xNzg5JmNyZWF0aXZlPTkzMjUmbGlua0NvZGU9dXIyJnRhZz10aG9tYXNuZWNvbS0yMCZsY3RnPTVlZjUwODdkM2Y4ZDc0N2I0ZjdjMjkyMw/5ef5087d3f8d747b4f7c2923Ba7695634">The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume I</a></i><br />Compiled in <i><a href="https://link.biblegateway.com/click/38084213.3254/aHR0cHM6Ly9iaWJsZWdhdGV3YXkuY2hyaXN0aWFuYm9vay5jb20vQ2hyaXN0aWFuL0Jvb2tzL3Byb2R1Y3Q_aXNibj05NzgwMDYxMjQwNTkxJmxjdGc9NWVmNTA4N2QzZjhkNzQ3YjRmN2MyOTIz/5ef5087d3f8d747b4f7c2923B862993dc">Yours, Jack</a></i></p>