Greetings, everyone. Treat yourself to a decent history book sometime this month; I suggest a book which reads like a novel if nothing else. Now to continue with the Letters...
Screwtape's admonition of Wormwood regarding the patient's "current religious phase" is paired with a very important sentence for us as Christians: "Has no one ever told you about the law of Undulation?" Indeed, I should think that most of us (I am included in this, yes, for I am ever forgetful) have not fully understood this law, if it should be called a law. I am certain that Lewis regards Undulation as a law, and there is much sense in this as most human beings experience peaks and troughs of physical, emotional, and spiritual patterns in their life. Part of this, Screwtape mentions, is that humans are "disgusting hybrids" who are at once physical and inhabit time, and spiritual beings directed to an eternal object. Screwtape's vitriol aside, he is quite right: we as human beings inhabit both time and eternity. Peaks and troughs are now understood a little better now that we understand our dual nature, but Screwtape's next letter section should give a very solid idea as to what God wants to do with us as opposed to the demons' desire to consumer our souls. It is this:
God desires "a world full of beings united to Him but still distinct".
This is why the tempters work so hard, if we remember the previous chapters. This is why Screwtape is doing his best to give instruction to his nephew Wormwood on how to draw a human soul into sin throughout his life before finally dragging that soul down into Hell. This is why a war rages right now for every decision of every person in every moment. Ah, now that I have finished ranting, back to the chapter.
The troughs of the human experience are where the most work is done for God, Screwtape warns. Also to put to rest a question that newer believers may have, God does not make use of the Irresistable and the Indisputable to override the human will. God desires a relationship, not domination of ourselves. This is why he withdraws himself from our conscious experience and very quietly whispers to us in the midst of our greatest struggles that He is still with us and still loves us. In these times, He also asks us to continue to do His will on earth. Screwtape writes that "Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy'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."
Thinking back to my readings of the gospels, I think that Jesus may have experienced troughs as well as peaks. Consider this: the gospel authors mention that Jesus withdrew frequently to remote settings and spent much time in prayer. During these times, Jesus drew on the strength and endurance of God for the coming day's ministry, and I believe that is because the previous day had drained his human self. Think too about his words on the cross (My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?) and we get a picture of a Jesus who experienced the peaks of ministry through sermons, healing, and driving out demons along with the troughs of physical exhaustion, emotional distress, and spiritual longing for the Father. We are called to follow Jesus as Christians; can we follow in His footsteps through the troughs as well as the peaks?
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