"Learning in War-Time"

This reading was initially a sermon that Lewis preached to a church filled with students from Oxford University. His main intention was to discuss whether during the war people should set everything aside and help the war efforts or continue on in "normal" life. Is it okay to sit in class all day learning while millions of people are dying on the other side of the earth? Lewis' goal is to answer this question. He starts by stating the obvious, something that I think many people tend to forget: "Life has never been normal". We are mistaken if we compare war with 'normal life'. I really liked what CS Lewis said regarding war: "... war creates no absolutely new situation: it simply aggravates the permanent human situation so that we can no longer ignore it". War is part of our life. We must deal with war and consequences of the like because we have fallen into sin. This doesn't mean that we treat war like it's nothing, but we also shouldn't hold it to such a high degree. 
Lewis then goes on to talk about knowledge. One line in particular that stood out to me in the reading was on the third page, third paragraph: "An appetite for these things (knowledge and beauty) exists in the human mind, and God makes no appetite in vain". This means that our hunger for knowledge comes from the Lord. He wants us to learn, He wants us to want to learn. If you feel called by God to be a doctor or a missionary or an English teacher then go for it! When you have a vision of what God wants you to do and you have a passion for that thing, once you're disciplined, action will follow and I'm sure you'll be blown away by the things He can do through you.     
As for Lewis' answer to the beginning question? I think he said it best in the last paragraph: "But if we thought that for some souls, and at some times, the life of learning, humbly offered to God, was, in it's own small way, one of the appointed approaches to the Divine reality and the Divine beauty which we hope to enjoy hereafter, we can think so still".