My good friend and ally, John, and I were noticing that just about everyone we know -- especially people on the front lines of Jesus' mission to rescue hearts -- was in deep pain or entrenched suffering of some sort. It's almost uncanny that so many of our allies are suffering; and it can't be explained away by, "Well, everyone goes through something now and then: that's just the way it is." [That sounds a bit naive to me.]
John brought up the following reference from The Screwtape Letters, by C.S. Lewis. Uncle Screwtape, the elder devil, is telling his nephew the very thing that makes evil itself nervous:
“Sooner or later he [God] withdraws, if not in fact, at least from their conscious experience, all supports and incentives. He leaves the creature to stand up on its own legs—to carry out from the will alone duties which have lost all relish…He cannot “tempt” to virtue as we do to vice. He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away his hand…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.”
― Uncle Screwtape. From C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
- "..to carry out from the will alone duties which have lost all relish."
- "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.”
If you've ever read my blog or my book, you'll know that I've never been one to advocate robotic duty or heart-less obedience; and I'm not sure Lewis is either here. At first blush, this may paint a rather unfavorable view of God, but note the following:
- Lewis does not say that God has left the creature – but that in our “conscious experience” it seems that way.
- He also doesn’t say that he takes away his presence in these times, but only his hand – so that we can walk when we didn’t think we could; or at least in a strength and capacity we have not ‘till now walked.
- It also doesn’t say that we have been forsaken, only that the creature "asks why he has been forsaken,” given the agony of his experience.
What makes the foul ones nervous? When an ally of Jesus keeps getting back up, refusing darkness the opportunity to gloat, and continues in desire-less plodding to carry hope into the Babylonian lions' den. Or to reach Mordor where the one ring will be swallowed in fire forever. Only then can Frodo go home. And for such a time as this, to face-down the king who has enslaved her people, exposing the plot, setting off a redemptive sequence in history that far outstrips Esthers diminuitive status.
"Take heart...for I have overcome the world." And because you are his ally, you are overcoming the world as well."