Chapter 8 and the Vanishing Twinkle

So you ‘have great hopes that the patient’s religious phase is dying away’, have you? I always thought the Training College had gone to pieces since they put old Slubgob at the head of it, and now I am sure. Has no one ever told you about the law of Undulation?

What a way to begin a chapter. I present to you The Screwtape Letters Chapter 8.

If you have never read The Screwtape Letters, let me quickly set the scene.

The book is a collection of fictional letters from Screwtape, an experienced demon, to his nephew Wormwood, a younger demon learning how to tempt a human being. The human is referred to as “the patient,” while God is called “the Enemy.”

It is a strange and clever way of looking at spiritual life. C. S. Lewis writes from the enemy’s perspective, revealing what hell would hope happens to us and, along the way, helping us recognise what God may be doing within us.

In chapter 8, Wormwood is excited because the patient appears to have entered a spiritual pause. His religious phase may finally be dying away. To us, that looks like a fade away of the initial excitement where prayer may no longer feel electric and opening the Bible might require more discipline. To summarize, the spiritual stars, sparkles, and twinkles are all vanishing.

Surely this must be excellent news for hell.

Screwtape’s response is essentially, Please do not get ahead of yourself.

A trough is not automatically a victory for the enemy. It can become one of the places where God does His deepest work in us.

…

This is Chapter 8 and the vanishing twinkle.

An Amphibian in Time (doesn’t save nine)

One of the first things that caught my attention in this chapter was Lewis describing human beings as “amphibians.”

An amphibian? Me? My mind immediately goes to frogs. 

Lewis writes that “humans are amphibians,” describing us as “half spirit and half animal.”

He uses the image to describe our strange human reality. We are spiritual beings, yet we live in physical bodies. We carry an awareness of eternity while living within time. Our bodies, our moods, our circumstances change, and even our experience of God can feel different from one season to another.

As Screwtape says, “To be in time means to change.”

And change we do.

There are days when work feels meaningful and days when opening your laptop feels like an act of war. There are seasons when you feel full of hope, and there are seasons when you must deliberately return your heart to hope.

Our bodies are part of what allows us to participate in time, a priviledge accorded to humans and a part of God’s intentional design. It is, in a sense, our ticket into this present world.

Through it, we wake, work, worship, hold the people we love, and carry out what God has given us to do.

Our bodies also remind us of this phenomenon of living in time. We age, tire, scar, heal, and grow stronger or weaker.

Day follows night. Seasons change. The body obeys the movement of time.

Yet something within us reaches beyond it.

He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.
Ecclesiastes 3:11, KJV

The word “world” is often translated as “eternity”.

God has set eternity in the human heart.

We are created beings, and God has formed us with an awareness that there is something beyond the life we can currently see.

I think this helps explain why we are always reaching for something more. Achievement can satisfy us for a moment and still leave us wanting. We accomplish one thing and immediately begin looking towards the next. We are drawn to something greater than ourselves.

We were made to look beyond ourselves. Our hearts were made to worship. When that worship settles upon something created, we ask it to carry the weight of eternity.

It cannot.

There is a deep harmony when our body, mind, and spirit are aligned with the same source of truth: God Himself.

Through the spiritual part of our human nature, we pray, worship, discern, and respond to God. Still, our access and understanding remain limited.

Scripture reminds us:

For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
1 Corinthians 13:9, KJV

We do not know everything about the physical world. We certainly do not know everything about the spiritual world. God alone holds complete knowledge.

God is also not bound by time as we are.

But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
2 Peter 3:8, KJV

Yesterday, today, and tomorrow are not limitations upon God. He sees the beginning and the end. He placed us within time and gave us work to do here.

This present life is temporary, yet it is deeply meaningful.

We have been given time to know God, love people, obey Him, and use what He has placed in our hands.

See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Ephesians 5:15–16, KJV

Our bodies allow us to influence what happens within time, and for those who belong to Christ, time is not the end of the story.

And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life.
1 John 2:25, KJV

There is an eternity with the Lord ahead of us. There will be no more sickness, grief, death, or pain.

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
Revelation 21:4, KJV

Until then, we live fully within the time we have been given. We do the work God has placed before us, and look towards eternity with Him.

So yes, we are amphibians in time.

Training School:  Law of Undulation

Our existence within time brings us to what Screwtape calls the law of undulation.

Lewis defines it as “the repeated return to a level from which they repeatedly fall back, a series of troughs and peaks.”

There are peaks when we feel energised, hopeful, and passionate. There are troughs when we feel tired, uncertain, and spiritually dry. We experience these movements within our emotions, interests, relationships, and spiritual lives.

Sometimes, we feel incredibly close to God. We are excited to pray. We open the Word with anticipation. Worship feels like fire. We are full of vision for the work God has placed in our hands.

Then, eventually, the feeling changes.

The fireworks stop. The stars and twinkles in our eyes begin to disappear. We still love God, yet our emotions are no longer carrying us in the same way. 

Screwtape would love for us to interpret every quiet season as abandonment. He would love for us to conclude that if God is not loudly felt, God must be absent.

Chapter Eight offers another possibility introduced by Screwtape as well.

The trough may be where God is teaching us to stand.

For we walk by faith, not by sight.
2 Corinthians 5:7, KJV

Walking by faith means our obedience has somewhere to stand when our emotions become tired. It stands upon the character of God, the Word of God and the memory of His faithfulness.

The God who met us during the peak remains God within the trough.

The Very Unofficial Theology of Cooked Meat

There is something beautiful about successfully coming out of a hard season. While you are going through it, I’ll tell you for free… It sucks.

I am a little hungry as I write this, so please bear with me, and if you are vegetarian, please forgive this entire metaphor.

Think about raw meat.

I do not think it has a smell that makes anyone particularly excited. Yet when it passes through fire, roasted, grilled, fried, or cooked using whichever method brings you joy, something begins to change.

An aroma begins to fill the room, and I hope someone remembered to season it properly.

While Scripture does not compare spiritual formation to cooking meat, hence the very unofficial theology of cooked meat.  Scripture speaks of faith being tested and refined by fire.

That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 1:7, KJV

Pain itself does not guarantee growth. A difficult season does not automatically make someone stronger. When we remain open to God within the fire, He can produce something in us that comfort may never have taught us.

James writes:

But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
James 1:4, KJV

The trough is where patience develops. It is where endurance grows. It is where our faith learns to live beyond emotional sweetness. So, dare I say, the trough is sometimes where we get cooked. LITERALLY, or refined, if you prefer the more scripturally respectable word.

It is in the valley that our bones grow stronger and our backbone develops. The next time we encounter similar terrain, it may not feel like a valley in quite the same way.

Oh, this looks familiar.

We recognize the landscape because God has carried us through similar terrain before. We have developed muscles we did not possess the first time.

On the topic of patience – a quick story…

I began exercising with a particular set of weights. After some time, the weights became lighter, and I was sure to move up to the next weight.
I did not in fact move up to the next weight. I stopped training consistently, and when I eventually picked it up again, I had to relearn and reacquaint myself with the weights.

When you are going through a training period, receive the strength, wisdom, and endurance God is forming within you. Allow patience to complete its work. Pay attention to what God is revealing about your heart. (Note to self)

Some difficulties will pass quickly. Others may remain longer than we hoped. We may never understand every painful experience or find a neat lesson within it. Our invitation is to remain open to God, trusting Him to sustain and form us as we walk through the season.

My prayer for you is that affliction shall not rise the second time. – Nahum 1:9

Come out smoky, seasoned, and still holding on to God.

When thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.
Isaiah 43:2, KJV

An Appalling Truth or So They Said

At one point in the chapter, Screwtape is forced to acknowledge something that he finds deeply offensive: God’s love for human beings is real. He calls it “an appalling truth.”

It is appalling to him.
It is beautiful to me.

Lewis writes that the devils want “cattle who can finally become food,” while God wants “servants who can finally become sons.”

That is such a powerful picture.

God wants sons and daughters. He invites us into relationship with Him and pours Himself into people who willingly receive Him.

But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.
John 1:12, KJV

Lewis also writes that God wants “a world full of beings united to Him but still distinct.”  He knows every part of you. He knows your gifts, fears, questions, habits, and hidden thoughts.

He still wants you.

God does not need you. He wants you. There is something beautiful about being wanted. To be needed can mean that someone requires you for survival. I need water. Yet I get more excited about the wanted ice cream. There’s my logic

God has no deficiency that we are required to fill. He is already complete. He is the Creator and owner of all things.

The earth is the LORD’S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.
Psalm 24:1, KJV

God has everything, yet He wants you.

He wants to draw you near. He wants to give Himself to you. He wants you to become more like Him while carrying the signature He placed within you.

You are distinctly created by God, distinctly loved and distinctly wanted.

He Cannot Ravish. He Can Only Woo.

Chapter Eight also speaks to a question many of us have wondered about.

Why does God sometimes seem hidden?

Why does He not simply appear to us and say “Hi”?

Screwtape explains that God could make His presence so overwhelming that disbelief becomes impossible. He calls this the irresistible and the indisputable weapons God refuses to use because merely overriding the human will would not accomplish what God desires.

Screwtape says that God “cannot ravish. He can only woo.”

I loved that.

God woos us.

Of course, Lewis is not suggesting that God lacks the power to reveal Himself. Scripture is filled with God revealing Himself, most fully through Jesus Christ. Lewis is describing the nature of the relationship God desires. God is not trying to overpower the will, erase the person, or manufacture obedience. He desires people who freely know Him, love Him, and become united with Him while remaining the distinct people He created them to be.

We love him, because he first loved us.
1 John 4:19, KJV

I cannot see God with my physical eyes, yet I love Him.

Call me crazy.

Peter writes:

You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy
1 Peter 1:8, NLT

Call us all crazy.

That is faith.

Sometimes, a Scripture grips you. Sometimes, a prayer is answered in a way that makes you pause. Sometimes, peace enters a situation where peace should not logically exist.

Sometimes, the faintest awareness of God disrupts your entire universe.

If the faintness of His presence can do this much, what will happen when we finally bask in His fullness for eternity?

Oh my God.

I hope I see you in heaven; we can grab a cup of tea and discuss how we survived life as amphibians.

Learning to Walk

One of the most beautiful explanations in the chapter is that God wants us to learn how to walk.

Screwtape says that God “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.”

God is pleased even with our stumbles when the will to walk is still there.

Think of a baby learning to take their first steps. A parent watches the baby stand, wobble, and fall. The parent does not interpret the fall as proof that the child was never meant to walk. They cheer the child on and encourage them until they eventually learn to walk.

Once they are walking confidently, the next task is learning to run. They run, fall, put the wrong foot forward, and tumble. Still, they get up again. They keep running until one day they become a sprinter or rather a marathoner.

Growth often looks like that.

There may be moments when it feels as though God has removed His hand. The obvious supports are gone. The excitement has faded. You are wobbling, stumbling, and wondering where He went. Yet the parent teaching a child to walk has not abandoned the child. The parent is still close. The distance simply gives the child room to take a step.

The psalmist writes:

The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the LORD upholdeth him with his hand.
Psalm 37:23–24, KJV

God’s hand remains near. When you fall, He can lift you. When you wobble, He can steady you. When you cannot feel Him, He remains faithful.

The book of Hebrews reminds us:

Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
Hebrews 13:5, KJV

You are learning to walk, and God has not abandoned you in the process.

Obey Anyway

Screwtape saves one of the chapter’s most powerful truths for the end.

He warns Wormwood that their cause is never in greater danger than when a person, “no longer desiring, but intending, to do our Enemy’s will,” looks around at a universe from which every trace of God appears to have vanished, wonders why they have been forsaken, “and still obeys.”

That is dangerous faith.

It is faith that prays while feeling dry, obeys while carrying questions, and continues to choose God when there is no immediate reward for doing so.

Habakkuk describes this kind of faith:

Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.
Habakkuk 3:17–18, KJV

The undulations will come. We are amphibians, after all. We live within changing seasons, fluctuating emotions, peaks, troughs, and moments when the twinkles disappear.

God remains unchanged through them all.

When you stumble, He sees that you still want to walk. When you fall, His hand remains close enough to lift you. When every trace of Him seems to have vanished, faith remembers who He has always been.

So, keep walking.
Keep choosing Him.
Obey anyway.

And that, my fellow amphibians, is Chapter Eight.

All quotations from C. S. Lewis in this annotation are from Chapter Eight of The Screwtape Letters.