Reading: The Screwtape Letters (ch. 12), C. S. Lewis
"The Christians describe the Enemy as one 'without whom Nothing is strong.' And Nothing is very strong; strong enough to steal away a man's best years not in sweet sins, but in a dreary flickering of the mind..."
"Indeed, the safest road to Hell is the gradual one -- the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts."
One of the most dangerous things in the Christian life is apathy. Lewis so strikingly describes the attack on Christians, the emphasis placed so carefully on the control of the 'vague, though uneasy feeling that he hasn't been doing very well lately.' This is where the first quote takes precedence. An inactive, apathetic Christian wastes his life, spends it "in drumming of fingers and kicking of heels, in whistling tunes that he does not like, of in the long, dim labyrinth of reveries that have not even lust or ambition to give them a relish." The most frightening realization is that it starts with the one, tiny sin.
"But do remember, the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy."
It sends chills down the spine, shivers of fear, not because it is inescapable, or because one cannot be rescued from it (for one can). Rather, it frightens because, if any of you are anything like me, we are already in danger. I know I waste much of my time away, tolerating sins, and eventually doing those sins. I have been rescued only because God hit me over the head with some books, His Word, and that nagging feeling that I'd been coasting. What I hadn't been paying attention to is what direction I'd been coasting in, and I think it's a little needless to say that it wasn't Heaven-bound.
And so it starts, here and now, beginning to be active in resisting the small sins as much as the big ones, taking joy in the fellowship and accountability that comes with a church community, finding refuge, peace, and guidance in the Scriptures, and, most importantly, humbling ourselves before the LORD, seeking nothing more than "effective contact" with our God.
I like how you put it when you said that "we are already in danger." Indeed that is a scary thought. I also like how you stated things so bluntly, but with a sense of humor, I often find that that is the way I receive messages best.
ReplyDeleteVery convicting. My sister always told me "the Christian life is lived in the small things," and this section is such a testimony to that.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that apathy sends us towards hell is a bit unnerving, because it forces us to flip out of autopilot and think about what it means to be a Christian.
ReplyDeleteI agree wholeheartedly with what you are saying. I think that the devil does most of his work gradually and unannounced. We need to understand that he is indeed there so that we can resist.
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