Lesson of the Week

I’m getting the impression that God is reminding me of something.

1) In the Screwtape Letters, read for CS Lewis class this week:

Your patient will, of course, have picked up the notion that he must submit with patience to the Enemy’s will. What the Enemy means by this is primarily that he should accept with patience the tribulation which has actually been dealt out to him – the present anxiety and suspense. It is about this that he is to say “Thy will be done,” and for the daily task of bearing this that the daily bread will be provided. It is your business to see that the patient never thinks of the present fear as his appointed cross but only the things he is afraid of. Let him regard them as his crosses: let him forget that, since they are incompatible, they cannot all happen to him, and let him try to practice fortitude and patience to them all in advance. For real resignation, at the same moment, to a dozen different and hypothetical fates, is almost impossible, and the Enemy does not greatly assist those who are trying to attain it: resignation to present and actual suffering, even where that suffering consists of fear, is far easier and is usually helped by this direct action. [Screwtape Letters, VI]

“Let him regard them as his crosses: let him forget that, since they are incompatible, they cannot all happen to him, and let him try to practice fortitude and patience to them all in advance.”

Sometimes I feel like Lewis knew me too well.

That goes along with another snippet of advice Screwtape gives to Wormwood.

"But don't try this too long, for fear you will awake his sense of humour and proportion, in which case he will merely laugh at you and go to bed." [XIV]

I'm pretty sure I underestimate the power of laughing at the devil, forgetting that he's been soundly beaten and has no authority to be giving Christ's people grief at all. Good night, Satan. You failed.

David*Crowder puts it this way:

We’re gonna
shout loud,
loud until the walls come down
shout loud,
loud until the walls come down
loud until the walls come down

Yeah yeah yeah

Because we’ve already won
And you don’t have a chance
Yeah we’ve already won
No you don’t have a chance
It’s already done
And you don’t have a chance
Because we’ve already won!
We have already won!

2) Recently, I reread my journal from the past summer, too, especially the week I was on the Edge. It caught my attention where I wrote about how I couldn’t plan for the week ahead or worry about it, because I didn’t know what was coming. Also, I had too much to do at any given moment that week. It kept me in the moment, and seriously reduced stress. It was a good thing.

3) Last night I was listening to JJ Heller’s song Save Me, and this line gets me every time: “You are stronger/ Than any terrible possible scenario today”. Too often, it seems, I am willing to admit that God is greater than whatever is going on at the moment. Sure. Of course He is. But I forget, whether unintentionally or purposefully, that He is also greater than the worst things I can imagine.

I don’t appreciate grace enough.

I get some other good reminders too, such as yesterday being insane with scrambling to do an assignment. But it works out; things always do… and my worry about them accomplishes nothing.

All I need to do is trust that He is and is good. And do the next thing, following Him.

Darkness is light to You

And all You ask me to do

Is trust what You say is true

[Save Me, JJ Heller]