My Very First Ever Blog Post!

This is Al entering my first ever blog post. I'm a little nervous. I feel like I have to be witty and casual and insightful and charming and endearing. But I'm also attracted by having an outlet for writing some of my thoughts which otherwise never get written down. So I'll just start with what is at the forefront of my mind today.

I'm reading The Screwtape Letters for the first time. I know, pretty pathetic for a Wheaton grad. Betsy and I agree that it is so "helpful," a non-descript sounding word perhaps, but perfectly fitting in this case. In case you haven't read it, The Screwtape Letters is a novel by C. S. Lewis that is written as a collection of letters from Screwtape, a senior demon, to his young nephew Wormwood. Screwtape gives Wormwood advice about how to best attack the newly-converted Christian to whom he's been assigned. Reading Lewis's speculation of the strategies used by the forces of evil against Christians is making me see my everyday challenges in a new, clarifying light. I'm thinking about what may be going on in the larger spiritual picture when I'm tempted to holler at my girls, snap at my husband, or go sullenly through my day because not everything is going exactly as I would like. And I also have started examining more closely attitudes or thoughts that I wouldn't have questioned before, seeing if there may be deception lurking there to which I've been oblivious. So. Here is the latest spiritual communication I "overheard" behind a conversation I recently had with a friend. I think they've advanced to e-mail now.

Wormwood,
If your subject is confronted with teaching regarding an area in which the Enemy would like her to develop (e.g. studying scripture, maturing in prayer, serving the poor, etc.), encourage her thoughts first toward evaluating the teacher rather than the truth of the teaching. That way, if someone challenges her to, for example, spend more and better time in prayer, she will first observe the teacher's tendency to "overemphasize" personal piety over corporate religion and private holiness over social justice. Suggest terms like "extreme" and "balanced," "limited" and "holistic." But don't go too far in your rhetoric -- using terms that are too negative may signal to her that she has a critical spirit, and the whole effort will be lost. By careful choice of terminology that will not distract her from our aim, you can turn dangerous teaching into an opportunity for judgmentalism toward a fellow (and probably more mature) believer and false pride in her own "balanced" spirituality.

Screwtape