Lesson's from Screwtape

I recently drove from Utah to Iowa to get back to school. During the 17 hours in the car I had a lot of time to think and I listened to a variety of different books. One of the books that I listened to was C.S. Lewis's Screwtape Letters. If you are not familiar it is a series of letters from a master devil, Screwtape, to his apprentice nephew, Wormwood. The letters vary on topic but all focus on strategies used by Satan's army to tempt and try mankind in an attempt to make them ineffective and miserable. In one of the letters, Screwtape instructs Wormwood about how God uses the "Undulations" or the ups and downs of life that we all experience. Our lives are a series of ups and downs, troughs and peaks in every department of our lives i.e. health and sickness, pleasure and pain, joy and sadness, employment and unemployment, concentration and relaxation etc. All are part of the undulations that we experience in life. Wormwood was under the false impression that God only used the times of prosperity to bless and help His people. Screwtape surprises his nephew however, with the revelation "that in His (God's) efforts to get permanent possession of a soul, He relies on the troughs even more than on the peaks; some of His special favorites have gone through longer and deeper troughs than anyone else." God does not simply use the good times or high points in our lives to instruct and teach us. He uses the low times, the moments of weakness and discouragement to open our minds and teach us lessons that we would otherwise not learn if our lives remained stagnant with ease.

It is part of God's plan for us to have "troughs" in our lives or times when we have to struggle, overcome failure (both actual and perceived failure, there is a difference), work hard, pray harder and fight for each step forward. The real question is why does God put us in such undesirable, unpredictable and sometimes miserable circumstances? If He loves us so much why can't He fill our lives with a consistent stream of wealth, prosperity and ease? Paul answered this question in Hebrews 12:11, he wrote: "Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby (Hebrews 12:11)." Paul's life was not easy but he knew that God saw the end from the beginning and therefore He knew exactly what experience Paul needed to maximize his growth and development. Paul only recognized the benefit of his trials after the fact, when the storm broke and it seems like he had reached a calm, he looked back and could see God's hand directing and teaching him. As it is with us, even though in the moment our afflictions are trying, taxing and wearisome, when looked upon later we realize that God had a purpose and by them we were made stronger people, with increased capacity to meet future struggles.

Orson Hyde added to this principle when he said: 

“No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude and humility. All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable, more worthy to be called the children of God . . . and it is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire."

There are times during our struggles that we may feel that everyone has forsaken us including God. It may seem like our prayers do not reach beyond the ceiling and each time we knock at heavens door there is no answer. This response to our cries may make us feel like we must be unworthy for God to answer our prayers or that God must not love us anymore. It appears like a logical explanation when everything points to the God of Heaven ignoring us in what seems like our greatest time of need. However, there are none exempt from these brief periods of silent treatment from Heaven, as even Jesus pled as He hung in agony on the cross "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me (Matt. 27:46)?"

Heaven does not become mute because God is mad at us, nor are we unworthy of his presence but as always these phases are profound teaching moments. It is as if God is teaching us how to ride a bike, for a moment He must let go to help us gain confidence in ourselves and in our ability to peddle on our own. If He did not let go, we would never understand our potential. Screwtape warned his apprentice of these situations, saying:

"Sooner or later He (God) withdraws, if not in fact, at least from their conscious experience, all those supports and incentives. He leaves the creature to stand up on its own legs— to carry out from the will alone duties which have lost all relish. It is during such trough periods, much more than during the peak periods, that it (us) is growing into the sort of creature He wants it to be. Hence the prayers offered in the state of dryness are those which 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. Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our (the devil's) cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy’s (God's) will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished , and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys."

God may leave us on our own for periods of time to aid us in our evolution as children of God but He never will forget nor remove His eye from our paths. In the book of Isaiah, Israel complained that God had forgotten and forsaken them. To answer their complaints God answered: "Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands (alluding to the emblems from the nails of the cross); thy walls are continually before me (Isaiah 49:15-16)." I know that God will not forget us even if we feel like he has forsaken us. The love that it took to pay the price for our souls was too great for Jesus to ever forget. Paul speaking of this love said, "I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39)." 

May we enjoy times of prosperity and ease but when the undulations of life take us into a time of adversity and struggle, as it surely will, remember that God's love will never fail us. He is using the troughs that we experience, even when we feel completely alone, to expand our minds, educate our desires, strengthen our faith, enliven our hope and refine who we are until we are transformed "unto a perfect man (or woman), unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ (Ephesians 4:13)." So don't give up, don't lose faith but trust Him and fight on!