Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?

                                                                                    --Luke 24:26

Part one of today's message from Dr. Darren:
 

Dear Friends,

One recent morning, in a quiet reading of C.S. Lewis’ satirical work, The Screwtape Letters, it hit me.  Here is our challenge…and here is our charge!  At first it seemed like an unlikely source of inspiration, but I was nevertheless struck by the counsel and clarity of Screwtape, a senior demon, to his nephew, Wormwood, who is presented as the junior tempter still in training.  In review of a recent case study of Wormwood’s influence on “the Patient,” the “affectionate uncle” offered this word of insight and advice:

“We want him to be in the maximum uncertainty, so that his mind will be filled with contradictory pictures of the future, every one of which arouses hope or fear.  There is nothing like suspense and anxiety for barricading a human’s mind against the Enemy (God).  He wants men to be concerned with what they will do; our business is to keep them thinking about what will happen to them.”

Oh, how true…and how applicable to our days!  At a time such as this, when it seems that the forces of chaos are having more than their fair share of free reign, when “the hits just keep on coming” as they say, it is hard not to imagine (and fear!) that there is at least some presence of evil scheming behind the scenes.  And the temptation—oh, the temptation!—is to be so consumed with what will happen to us if the given circumstances are not immediately resolved, that we risk losing our capacity to do anything proactively for the good. 

Screwtape is well versed in the benefits of anxiety.  It makes his job so much easier, as the results clearly show.  Passivity born of perplexity can be a crippling force, and is no doubt the product of the intended ‘barricade’ of heart and mind.  The walls of this cell are subtle at first, but nonetheless debilitating. 

Is there a way out of this?  I believe there is!  

Whether it is from the countless stories of ‘jailbreak” in the Acts of the Apostles, the exodus of Hebrew slaves from Egypt, or the witness of the empty tomb of Jesus, our faith declares time and again that there is a way out.  God forgive us our selective memory in the face of “maximum uncertainty”!

Lord...open our eyes, ears, and hearts to your Truth.  Save us from weak resignation to the evils we deplore; let the search for thy salvation be our glory evermore.

Grace to You, 

Darren