Yes, religious people must allow their faith to add salt to public life… but public politics is not the ground whereon a personal faith can be prosecuted. When that happens we all too often end up, to Screwtape’s glee and delight, using our faith as a convenience for our own personal preference instead of building the Realm of God.
Silence, lived and felt well, is not emptiness; it is the musical accompaniment to the whispers of God’s love.
The lesson I need to learn, and perhaps a few other readers who like me allow themselves to be hag-ridden by their vocations, is the one about to whom my time and days really belongs…
When did we ever think that destroying and belittling someone else’s devotion, ritual, or way of prayer would help us grow any closer to God? Screwtape and his minions have certainly been hard at work!
The Word of God IS living and active and, if we but let it, it will pierce our souls and transform our hearts. But for that to happen both listener and preacher must be willing to be wounded by the Word.
I know if I moved away from ‘the big church’ of my boarding school years any growth I gained would be for me, myself, and me alone – an unholy trinity if ever there were one!
People obsessed with the future become dis-eased with life and are robbed of the possibility of any present joy or gratitude to God.
When we separate ourselves from each other and the world around us it is impossible to see the grandeur of God we will remain blind to the gifts God is pouring out upon us – trapped in a downward spiral of animal self-love……
How tempting it is as we make a little progress in the life of faith to pat ourselves on the back for thinking we must be ‘jolly good fellows’ for God to have chosen to love us and care for us!
Resisting the Prowling Lion – 40 Days with Screwtape Day 20 – Thursday after 3rd Sunday of Lent To Read: From The Screwtape Letters: Screwtape, a senior demon, is offering advice to Wormwood his nephew, an apprentice demon. The language he uses is ‘upside down’ referring to God as ‘the Enemy’ and the devil as ‘Our… Continue reading Resisting the Prowling Lion – Day 20
Suffolk Vicar 