Thursday, February 3, 2022
C.S. Lewis, after he’d been
converted, wrote many wonderful things to defend the faith of the Christ he’d
come to love. One of the deepest (for
me) of these is The Screwtape Letters, an imagined conversation
between a senior demon named Screwtape, and his nephew, Wormwood, a demon
apprentice. Uncle Screwtape is mentoring
Wormwood on how to drag other humans to Hell.
In one training session, something of a debriefing on the work of an old
devil, Lewis recounts something quite apropos to the last couple of years in
our generation[1]:
′′One young devil asked the old man: "How did you manage to bring so many
souls to hell?" The old devil
answered: "I instilled fear in
them!"
Answers the youngster: "Great job! And what were they afraid of? Wars? Hunger?" Answers the man: "No, they were afraid of the
disease!"
For this youngster: "Does this mean they didn't get sick? Are they not dead? There was no rescue for
them?" The old man answered: "but no . . . they got sick, died, and
the rescue was there."
The young devil, surprised, answered: "Then I don't understand???"
The old man answered: "You know they believed the only thing
they have to keep at any cost is their lives. They stopped hugging, greeting each other.
They've moved away from each other. They
gave up all social contacts and everything that was human! Later they ran out of money, lost their jobs,
but that was their choice because they were afraid for their lives, that's why
they quit their jobs without even having bread. They believed blindly everything they heard
and read in the papers. They gave up
their freedoms, they didn't leave their own homes literally anywhere. They stopped visiting family and friends. The world turned into such a concentration
camp, without forcing them into captivity. They accepted everything!!! Just to live at least one more miserable day .
. . And so living, they died every day!!! And that's how it was very easy for me to take
their miserable souls to hell....′′
For You Today
Fear is as much, if not more, of an
enemy than any pandemic. We must keep in
balance the prudence of planning and appropriate caution for our own health,
and that of others. Jesus did encourage
that his believers were to count the cost[2],
meaning understanding there are risks, because we live in bodies that are
susceptible to disease and injury. At
the same time, there is little sense in clinging to a miserable life, filled
with fear. Rather than live fearing that
which can kill the body, our lives should be spent lovingly serving the One who
gives eternal life.
The words of Jesus should be
sufficient at this point:
Dear friends, don’t be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot do any more to you after that. But I’ll tell you whom to fear. Fear God, who has the power to kill you and then throw you into hell. Yes, he’s the one to fear.
Luke 12:4-5
If you cling to your life, you
will lose it, and if you let your life go, you
will save it. Luke 17:33
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have
a blessed day!
[1] Title and Other Images: Pixabay.com Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
