You might think that growing up in a pastor’s home means Brent Campbell didn’t struggle to follow Jesus. But that’s just not true.
Brent had faithful, loving parents who consistently shared with him the good news about Jesus. He understood the gospel, but a relationship with God seemed foreign. “I thought people were either making it up, or it was only for special people.,” Brent says. Brent didn’t know whether to call himself an atheist, agnostic—or something entirely different, but he wasn’t a Christian. That changed during his junior year in college when he had a radical encounter with Jesus.
Not long after his conversion, he discovered C.S. Lewis’ book The Screwtape Letters, a novel describing a fictional series of letters between two demons. The book touches on a variety of themes related to human nature and theology. “It gave me something to hold on to that was understandable and relational enough to put my own context into,” Brent said. “I could see myself in the story quite easily.”
The Screwtape Letters helped Brent see the Bible in a fresh way and grow as a new believer. It was a turning point in his spiritual life. Brent says if he had the opportunity to talk with the person who recommended the book to him, he’d be sure to say thank you.
“They may not have intended this or recognized this at the time., but I really feel like God used that book to help me take my purity seriously,” Brent said. “As a young man dealing with all the porn and the sex and the stuff, to have the temptation I was experiencing connected in a really relational way to the schemes of the devil, and his desires for what he wanted out of my life. The book showed me [the devil’s] desire to win my affection from God. To have it put in that way helped me to take my temptation and my purity more seriously than I would have.”