TSL #3 - Daily Pinpicks

In TSL #3, Screwtape encourages Wormwood to manipulate the patient so his behavior does not reflect an increasing standard of faith. In other words, he wants the believer's actions to be disconnected from what he believes, especially toward those with whom he is closest. In this case, it is the patient's mother.

Screwtape's strategy is simple. He wants to create tension between mother and son (or in our case insert any appropriate family member) and "build up ... in that house a good settled habit of mutual annoyance; daily pinpricks."

Satan's methods for creating these "daily pinpricks" are also straightfoward and most certainly devilish.

First, he wants us to think so spiritually that we fail to see our true condition and need for change. As Lewis describes it, this is "the horrow and neglect of the obvious." This is where we become so engrossed in our "spiritual" journey that we fail to see how rude we are to those at work or the degree of our impatience with our children. We think we are suppose to figure out God's will for the next three decades when all our son wants is help figuring out his Algebra homework.

Next, Screwtape wants our prayer life to be so spiritual that we pray for souls but fail to see or meet the basic needs around us. This can happen when we focus on the "inconvenient or irritating" sins of others. Who wants to help someone who is constantly crawling under our skin? Besides, isn't it better to pray that they get better? Another danger is replacing our friends or family members (or church mates - see TSL #2) with imaginary persons. The gulf between the real person and "who they are suppose to be" will often paralyze our prayers, if not petrify them all together.

Another strategy is to constantly remind us of "the tones of voice and expressions of face which are unendurably irritating" to us. This might be the defensiveness in their question or the condescending squint in their eyes. Of course, we never have similar looks or tones. We see life through a window, but never a mirror.

Finally, Screwtapes instructs Wormwood to create a double standard in the mind of his patient. This occurs when we believe our words are never accepted on face value while every word from those around us is laced with offensive if not malicious intentions. An innocent statement is perceived as the most vile attack. Verbal quarrels are never resolved, only justified in each other's minds.

This letter is convicting to the core of daily living.

Too often I let my "spirituality" distract me from the reality of loving those in my life in selfless, practical ways. I forget to view others in Christ as children of God, made in his image, and destined for glory. Instead, I let the daily "pinpricks" of life affect my thoughts, prayers and actions.

TSL #2 - The Pictoral Church

A situation arises in TSL #2 that would seem to negate the need for 29 additional letters.

Wormwood's patient becomes a Christian.

Yet, despite his concern, Uncle Screwtape does not despair. He still sees opportunity to keep the "two-legged animal" in a state of mind far from God. He carefully instructs Wormwood on some of the weaponary at his disposal. In this particular letter, he focuses on distorting our image of the church.

There is no doubt the enemy wants to blind us to the true nature of the Church universal. That last thing he wants us to see, in the words of Screwtape, is ...

"the Church as we see her spread out through all time and space and rooted in eternity, terrible as an army with banners. That, I confess, is a spectacle which makes our boldest tempters uneasy. But fortunately it is quite invisible to these humans."

Instead, the tempter wants us to see an "imperfect" and therefore "irrelevant" church, a view skewed by human pride and mainifested in judgment and self-elevation.

"Your patient, thanks to Our Father Below, is a fool. Provided that any of those neighbours sing out of tune, or have boots that squeak, or double chins, or odd clothes, the patient will quite easily believe that their religion must therefore be somehow ridiculous. At his present stage, you see, he has an idea of "Christians" in his mind which he supposes to be spiritual but which, in fact, is largely pictoral."

So what image of the church do we have? Is is pure or pictoral? Is the body of Christ a family of the redeemed and forgiven or a collection of hypocritical, self-righteous, spiritual wannabes who belong behind us in the line to the throne?

Smugness and humility cannot coexist in the heart of the faithful.

We will never travel far in our journey of faith unless we are willing to cross the threshold from emotion-based imagination to God-spoken truth of who we are in Christ, both individually and collectively as the Church.

Just like Screwtape, the enemy doesn't mind too terribly if our vessel leaves the shore. He is content to simply watch us sail in circles within the visible confines of our familiar past. But that is not where life will be experienced. It will only be endured.

So look around. Are you tired of the shallow harbor? I know I am. The wind is picking up and God is calling me to the deep waters. What about you?

TSL #1 - The Pressure of the Ordinary

In his first letter to Wormwood, Screwtape focuses on two strategies for distracting our hearts and minds to keep us "out of the Enemy's clutches." The first is avoiding "argument" about what is true or false in life. Instead, Wormwood is instructed to help his Patient focus on jargon, or contemporary philosophy.

"Don't waste time trying to make him think that materialism is true! Make him think it is strong, or stark, or courageous - that is the philosophy of the future. That's the sort of think he cares about."

He goes on to state why argument can be such a powerful tool for the believer.

"By the very act of argument, you awake the patient's reason; and once it is awake, who can forsee the result? Even if a particular train of thought can be twisted so as to end in our favour, you will find that you have been strenghtening in your patient the fatal habit of attending to universal issues and withdrawing his attention from the stream of immediate sense experiences. Your business is to fix his attention on the stream. Teach him to call it "real life" and don't let him ask what he means by 'real'."

This is the second strategy - making the faithful get lost in the day to day activities of the present age such that we lose sight of our eternal purpose and destiny. Whenever our life is reduced to the traffic jam on the way to work, or the pending project due by close of business, or our child's soccer game, or the host of other activities that fill our block of hours known as a day, we lose sight of our true purpose; in fact it become difficult for us to accept the reality of anything beyond our dayplanner.

This is the advise of Screwtape to Wormwood:

"You begin to see the point? Thanks to processes which we set at work in them centuries ago, they find it all but impossible to believe in the unfamiliar while the familiar is before their eyes. Keep pressing on him the ordinariness of things."

So what does this mean for us?

For starters, we should not be afraid to wrestle with the reality of truth. In fact, we must challenge the reason of our faith to discover "the universal issues" for which we were created. God welcomes this inquiry for He is pleased to reveal His knowledge and "awaken our reason" to discover our unique, individual purpose.

Secondly, we must not let the day to day become our all in all. The routine and regiment of daily living can be hypnotic, placing us in a trance that mistakes the activities of life for the reason for living. God wants us to seek the extraordinary of what we cannot touch and see. He wants us to experience the "real life."

So the next time you are bumper to bumper on I-35 or racing the clock to finish a proposal for your boss or finding yourself frustrated with the officiating on the field, don't confuse the "pressure of the ordinary" with the purpose of our existence. We were made for experiences beyond those things and moments that simply fill our calendar each day.

Screwtape Revisited

While exploring the Mall of America in Minneapolis this week (which could literally take almost an entire week), I wandered into Barnes and Noble and picked up a copy of The Complete C.S. Lewis Signature Classics. This seven book compilation represents the best from the best. I started on page 179 ... The Screwtape Letters.

I first read TSL as a sophomore in college in 1980. I remember being intriqued with the concept and structure of the book. The storyline centers around a series of letters written from a senior demon, Screwtape, to his nephew, Wormwood, a fledging tempter assigned to an individual identified as the Patient. Through the reverse moral perspective of the demons, Lewis outlines what it means to live out the Christian faith in the small details of life.

TSL was an easy read at that time in my life. But looking back, it was also a book beyond me. My life experiences (or lack thereof) did not allow me to fully grasp and appreciate the principles creatively woven throughout the letters.

It would be like letting your son drive a Porsche on his 16th birthday or take his first date to the Plaza III Steakhouse. He might enjoy the drive or the meal, but the enjoyment would be limited due to his lack of perspective and comparison. As such, it would be wasted horsepower and prime angus. Let him ride around in a clunker for a while and scrape together a few bucks for Taco Bell and suddenly the Boxster and Filet Mignon become more than an event. They are an experience with lasting memory and meaning.

So after 25 years of tooling around in the Christian faith, nibbling on spiritual fast food, I believe it is time to revisit The Screwtape Letters. I plan on blogging through the thirty one letters over the course of the next several months. I hope that the crossroads of the past three decades will radically change my reaction of TSL from an easy read to a life-deepening experience.

I welcome you to join me on this journey with your comments and contributions.