Screwtape

Lived through another day in an exhausted stupor. I was standing in the shower yesterday when this excerpt came to me.
“Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy’s will, looks around a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.”
It’s from C.S. Lewis’s masterly ‘Screwtape Letters’, which documents the wise old devil Screwtape’s letters to his nephew Wormwood. Interestingly, ‘Screwtape Letters’ was dedicated to J. R. R. Tolkien.

In ‘Reaching for the Invisible God’, Philip Yancey writes about Christians who “volunteered to serve others in a spirit of idealism [that’s me!] As trials increased, they anticipated a closer sense of God’s presence, more support, stronger faith [exactly!]. Instead, they found the opposite.”

Why? Lewis goes on to write:
“It is during such trough periods, much more than during the peak periods, that it [the believer] is growing into the creature He wants it to be. Hence, the prayers offered in the state of dryness are those that please Him best…He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away His hand; and if only the will to walk is really there He is pleased even with their stumbles.”

Both Pastor Julie and Joseph have pointed out my strange idiosyncrasy of raising an issue and then proceeding to resolve it on my own. Well, looks like I did it again. But I really appreciate those who have offered their two cents worth (ok, it's worth much, much more!) of support and encouragement. Kudos to Rog and Lim!