When We Lose Ourselves, We Find Ourselves
A Truth Worth Holding Onto From C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters
On writing The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis penned in the introduction: "Though it was easy to twist one's mind into the diabolical attitude, it was not fun, or not for long. The strain produced a sort of spiritual cramp. The world into which I had to project myself while I spoke through Screwtape was all dust, grit, thirst and itch. Every trace of beauty, freshness and geniality had to be excluded. It almost smothered me before I was done. It would have smothered my readers if I had prolonged it."
Such an honest start to one of my favorite books. I’m grateful he didn’t quit on this one as The Screwtape Letters is a literary masterpiece. A classic and timeless novel not only known for its wit and humor, but because the truths Lewis digs into have remained relevant throughout the decades and generations since it was first published in 1942.
There’s so much to enjoy, from his witty lines like "For we must never forget what is the most repellent and inexplicable trait in our enemy; He really loves the hairless bipeds He has created..." and signing the final letter with "Your increasingly and ravenously affectionate uncle." But there’s also his razor sharp and perceptive look into the tricks and tools of one who seeks humanity’s destruction.
Having read it several times, my copy is full of highlights and underlined sections. I always come away with a new insight and with each new read through.
One such example is how we are reminded that The Father Below (the demons’ name for satan) will do all he can to distract us from what God truly longs for us to experience. Never does temptation come across as a little devil on our shoulder with a pitchfork, but, as Lewis so eloquently points out, it’s in a quieter way. Those times of getting us to focus on daily life distractions. As Screwtape writes to his young charge, Wormwood:
"You will say that these are very small sins; and doubtless, like all young tempters, you are anxious to be able to report spectacular wickedness. But do remember, the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy. It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one - the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts..." (emphasis mine)
And yet while these tempters long to twist what is good, Lewis brilliantly shows us how, God, on the other hand, isn’t about removing things, but rather filling us up. That what God wants for each of us is better than we can imagine. That when he asks us to "lose ourselves" in Him, it's so we can gain.
So opposite from Screwtape’s angry question to Wormwood: "And anyway, why should the creature be happy?"
How beautiful is it that God is so very different from the devil’s schemes and plots? As Screwtape points out, “"We want cattle who can finally become food; He wants servants who can finally become sons. We want to suck in, He wants to give out. We are empty and would be filled; He is full and flows over. Our war aim is a world in which Our Father Below has drawn all other beings into himself: the Enemy wants a world full of beings united to Him but still distinct."
What a beautiful distinction and promise.
If you’ve read this one, what stuck out to you? What’s one of your biggest takeaways?
© 2023 Jamie Lapeyrolerie
When We Lose Ourselves, We Find Ourselves
Thanks Jamie. Love The Screwtape Letters, too. So clever. Since first read, been fascinated by the idea of demonic patience. Normally, among the virtues. And the paradox of being irremediably evil by choice and yet still inescapably stamped with the beauty of divinely endowed being. It’s a real head bender!