Screwtape

For my Spiritual Formation Class, we wrote a letter modeled after C.S. Lewis' book, The Screwtape Letters. If you haven't read the book, it is a fictional series of letters from one demon to another about the man they tempt and torture. So for this class we were to imagine how a demon might be lying to us. I don't know how this all really works, spiritually, but I wrote a letter about the lies I believe Satan feeds me, and the traps I into which I frequently fall. It's fairly dark, and I may change my mind and take this off my blog, but I thought I'd put it out there to edify and encourage. Enough qualifiers.

One more quick intro. I named the demon "hollowine." I did so to play on the word Halloween of course, and also because all of the lies of the Enemy aim at hollowing me out, like a dark ice cream scoop, taking out all that is lovely and true, and replacing it with emptiness.

My Dear Hollowine,

Thus far, you’ve done a great job of using the word "should" to paralyze her. Should remains one of our most powerful words because His side also uses this word, though of course, with very different purposes. When she first crossed from dark to Him, she rejoiced in the fact that her inadequacies didn’t matter anymore. Freely she exulted. But now, thanks to us, she feels they matter a great deal. Here's a little known secret: hyper-awareness of inadequacies is actually more useful to our side than the inadequacies themselves. For example, her inability to completely rid herself of pride before doing something for Him has at times left her motionless, unwilling to move. She wants to purify her motives completely before acting. This is of course, impossible. She has forgotten that He does not require perfection, but dependence, and that and that He is the one who will change her.
Continue to remind her of what she should or should not be doing, hoping, struggling with, etc. Continue to feed her the thought that nothing she puts her hands to is of any significance unless she does it perfectly. The reason the word should wields such power is that the Enemy uses the word to influence the future. He speaks to humans when they are considering a certain choice, and leads them with should and should not. We twist the word and thought, and even the feeling of should, and use it to focus the Christian on the past, or even their present circumstances. Say she feels fear, for example. Convince her that she shouldn’t feel fear, and tell her that if she were the kind of person she were supposed to be, fear would never be a part of her life. Condemn her. Be careful though; don’t speak too loudly, because at the same time the Enemy will tell her that given the fact that she feels fear, she should come to Him for peace and courage. If we are too overt, she’ll be able to hear the difference.
Convince her that everything she has done has been tainted by her inadequacies. This is of course, true, and the Enemy knows it, but He will tell her that it doesn’t matter, because Adequacy is found in Him. If we continue down this road successfully, she will arrive completely removed from the broken, needy person she was when she first crossed over, and will busy herself moment after moment trying to make herself “lovely and pure.”
One more thing, somewhat distinct, yet related; tell our dear weakling that her failures, her lack of ability to see Him, and the diversity in the world nullify her ability to reason. Convince her that Truth is unknowable, and that it is arrogant to say otherwise. Because of her emotional highs and lows, because of falling, because of coming into higher truths about God that are complex and mysterious, she may be persuaded to believe (and even better, think herself humble for it) that she has no ability to reason. Feed her thoughts such as, “Well, who am I to say what’s finally true and not true?” Then mingle those thoughts with fear of what her community around her will think for doubting, and you’ve got the best combination of all- a song and dance. She will continue acting as though the Book and the Enemy are her authority, but her heart will be with us. You may even let her have some success in self-discipline, some outward achievements to convince her that she really is okay after all. But the Enemy wants far more than that. He wants awareness, aliveness, and faith. He wants brokenness, dependence, forgiveness and love. We want fear. The irony lays in the fact that in saying “I cannot reason,” she actually is reasoning. Her human mind becomes thus worthless, and this is the only real tool we have. If she uses her mind, she’ll be lost to us forever.
Your efforts thus far have been valiant. I’ve peeked in on her plenty of glorious sunny days and seen her terrified with no clue why. But be careful. I think she may be starting to catch on…

Dutifully,
Satan