The Law of Undulation (4th Day 66)

Dear brothers and sisters,

Praise God Most High and give Him Glory!

There is no greater defense against the attacks of Satan than to praise God. The mere words "Praise God!" causes all the devils in Hell to cringe and retreat. Praising God is like a barrage of fiery arrows shot at the Enemy. We should remember that.

I have not written in only a couple of days, but it seems much longer. I honestly could not find words to write. I was in a funk, so to speak, concerning my Emmaus Walk. That's not totally true; I think I was just in a funk.

I started a new job on Monday and am now commuting to Washington by train. It gives me the opportunity to do more reading than before. I finished The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis and have started The Screwtape Letters. Neither book is very long (not like the epic, The Chronicles of Narnia), so it doesn't take but a couple trips to read through the books. I look forward to catching up on my reading.

Anyway, I strongly recommend The Screwtape Letters to you. You see, The Screwtape Letters is fictional story of spiritual warfare told through a one-sided conversation by way of letters that a senior devil is having with his junior nephew demon. Screwtape (the uncle) gives Wormwood (the nephew) sage advice on how to steal away a human soul to Hell.

I won't tell you how it ends (because I read it a long, long time ago for the first time and don't remember the ending), but I will say that at least one chapter (Letter) hit very close to home. In this letter, Screwtape is telling Wormwood about the law of Undulation in which it is natural for humans, throughout their lives, to go through a series of peaks and troughs. In explaining these periods of troughs, Screwtape says,

"...Sooner or later He [God] withdraws, if not in fact, at lease from their conscious experience, all those supports and incentives. He leaves the creature [humans] 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 is growing into the sort of creature He wants it to be. Hence the prayers offered in a state of dryness are those which please Him best..."

C.S. Lewis is saying through this fantasy story that from time to time God will withdraw His detectable presence from us so that we might grow stronger in Him. “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.”

The Screwtape Letters is pure fantasy, but even so, Lewis is describing something that we Christians go through. And that experience, if experienced by only one other person (Lewis), is assurance enough that spiritual ups and downs are common among other Christians and do not indicate flaws or failures in our own faith.

C.S. Lewis is arguably one of the most influential Christian writers of the twentieth century, and if he can express so accurately seasons of “dryness” in our Christian lives, then we should find comfort in knowing that we are not alone. And remember, the prayers offered in a state of dryness are those which please Him best.

Seek the Lord always and in all circumstances, and He will sustain and rescue you. Praise be to God Almighty.

De Colores,
Bill
WV88