The small group that Kristen and I are involved in has decided to trek through C. S. Lewis’ book, “The Screwtape Letters” (we’re discussing four letters/chapters each time we meet).  I had read the book once before, but it’s been quite a few years since I last picked it up.  If you’re not familiar with this book, I’d highly encourage you to get it.  It consists of fictional letters from an elderly, retired devil (Screwtape) to a young devil (Wormwood) who has just started working on his first “patient” or human.  The point of the letters is to give the reader a window into the psychology of temptation, but from the perspective of the tempters.  And because it’s written from this opposite perspective, “the Enemy” refers to God, while “Our Father Below” is Satan.  From our last study, there was one point in the second letter that I’ve been thinking a lot about.  The elderly demon, Screwtape, tells his young apprentice that “the Enemy” (God) continually allows His people to encounter disappointment, and that this is both opportunity and danger for the demons.

The goal of young Wormwood is to undermine the faith of a man (the “patient”) who has recently become a Christian.  While the elderly Screwtape is initially frustrated at this report of the man’s conversion, he tells Wormwood that there is still hope.  Screwtape instructs his trainee to strike at a critical juncture in the new Christian’s life—when emotional disappointment is first experienced.  But Screwpate also says that God “allows this disappointment to occur on the threshold of every human endeavour.” 

We’re told that disappointment and disillusionment “marks the transition from dreaming aspiration to laborious doing” in every area of life (marriage, study, work, etc.).  For instance, in our Christian life we initially feel a want or desire to pray or read the Bible when we first become followers of Jesus.  And the practice of prayer and study is made easier by supporting feelings.  However, have you noticed the ebb and flow nature of feelings?  At times they are there (usually at the start), while at other moments they are dry.  These dry times feel to us as though God is distant or even absent.  And Screwtape informs his apprentice that “it is during such [valley] periods, much more than during the [mountaintop] periods, that [a Christian] is growing into the sort of creature [God] wants it to be.” 

Kristen and I have been married for nearly 10 years now.  And in those first few days of our relationship it is was so easy to put my own desires second, to prefer her needs to my own.  We’ve all probably experience something like that.  But what happens not far down the road?  Is it always easy to submit our desire to another’s?  No!  But there’s good reason why this must be.  The reason it was so easy to act lovingly toward Kristen initially was due in large part to the motivation of strong feelings.  But reality is, Kristen didn’t really have all of me when I pursued her with feelings at the helm.  She had my feelings, yet, but Brent is more than feelings.  Along with feelings, I am also made up of components like will, intellect, a moral nature, etc.  So, it’s only when the feelings do not lead the way and I chose (i.e., as a matter of will) to pursue my wife that she has the whole Brent.

Similarly, God refuses to carry us by our feelings.  This is because God wants the whole of us, not just our feelings.  Feelings are easy.  He wants our reason, our hears and wills—the entire package.  It’s therefore that Screwtape correctly states,

“the prayers offered in the state of dryness are those which please [God] best . . . . 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 round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys” (Ch 8). 

It is only as we experience disillusionment and disappointment with God that we have the opportunity to be more fully His.  And just like a lover, God is not satisfied until He has the whole of you.