CS Lewis lecture

Last night I went to an amazing lecture by Earl Palmer, who is a local pastor and great speaker, on the topic of CS Lewis. He started the talk by telling a lot about the life journey of CS Lewis, including the death of his mother when he was 10, his experience of loss of faith and becoming an atheist, and then what led him to become Christian. Earl Palmer noted that the fact that Lewis, having previously been an atheist, ended up being very good at apologetics, that is, he was able to express very well his reasons for why he believed what he did about Christianity and was aware of and could defend what arguments and challenges he might receive. Palmer stated that some people's reasons for why they are Christian just don't stand up any better than "deep thoughts". He gave a funny example of a deep thought he had heard: "If you are standing by a river of molten lava, and your keys fall into it....they're gone." Anyway, back to the point. Lewis was always respectful of those who argued against Christianity and never assumed that he had won the argument. He also tended to focus on one important, central, radical point, instead of trying to address every little argument someone might have.
I found this lecture to be profound. I knew a little bit about CS Lewis and have read some of his stuff. My first introduction to CS Lewis was when my dad read me the Chronicles of Narnia when I was in elementary school. I knew somewhat of the story of Lewis' life, but to have it explained and explored more by someone who has studied CS Lewis in depth gave me a much greater appreciation for Lewis, and I want to read lots more of his work! I think first on the list is Surprised by Joy which I have owned for about 5 years now, but never got around to reading yet.
Another thing this lecture made me think about is that sort of balance between apologetics - being able to explain your faith and defend it, and the idea of open-mindedness and realizing there's a lot about God that we don't know or can't explain (see post "Utterly Humbled By Mystery" in December). I can definitely see the importance of both these concepts, but in some ways they seem to conflict. I guess it's important to try to find a balance in ourselves regarding this.