Over the past two weeks of this class, I have experienced my second reading of The Screwtape Letters. I guess that I was thinking that reading it for a class and it being a second time I would find some new insight into what Lewis was saying and that something new would stand out to me. Instead I have found that what really struck me the first time I read Screwtape was still the most influential part of the book for me. This part was the letter on the trough periods.
When I think about the trough periods I have always seen it as, not so much a terrible period in life where absolutely everything is going wrong but, a period where my faith seems to be at a standstill. Screwtape tells Wormwood that after every period when God seems so close and having faith is so easy "Sooner or later He withdraws, if not in fact, as least from their conscious experience, all those supports and incentives" (page 40). The theory here is that God wants us to be able to stand up on our own two feet and go to him of our own choosing; He will be there to support us at the beginning and at periods along the way, but like a parent teaching a child to walk, he will let go and make us go it on our own at times. I feel like this is the trough that Screwtape talks about. When you are at the Peak, it is easy to praise God for all He has done for you, and when you are at the absolute bottom, there is no place to look but up, but when everything is okay and life is on autopilot and you don't see God's presence in your life...what do you do then?
For me, this has been when my faith seems to suffer the most, especially at an institution like Northwestern. It seems to me that in a Christian community, people are less likely to admit when they don't feel God. There have been times that it has been hard for me to be surrounded by so many Christians who don't seem to experience the same low periods in their faith as I do. I think this is why it sticks out to me in Lewis' writing. Whether or not Lewis gets it exactly right, I think that it was important for me to hear what he, or Screwtape, has to say about the law of undulation and that at least one other person has gone through that period where God seems absent and losing your faith is easy. After constantly being bombarded with the "don't let this be a spiritual high, make it a spiritual upgrade" propaganda I needed to hear that everyone's life is filled with ups and downs.
I also appreciated the discussion of growing through the troughs, but what really hit me this time was when Screwtape tells Wormwood that "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" (page 40). I realize that Screwtape is referring to Christ in this statement, but I wonder how this can be applied to our lives. Is it possible that we can lose our faith and still obey what God says? Can we do what His will without desiring to do it? One person already did. When God lets go, and wants us to walk on our own but leaves us with an empty feeling inside, what do we do? Can a lack of faith truly be turned into something good by simply doing?
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