Undulation

In C.S. Lewis', "Screwtape Letters", Screwtape asked his nephew, a faithful servant of the evil, "Has no one ever told you about the law of Undulation?"

I had to stop. I'm a "no-brainer" with esoteric words. There, I said it! So what does "u-n-d-u-l-a-t-i-o-n" mean? Flipping through the dictionary pages, here's what I found:

Undulation, "A regular rising and falling or movement to alternating sides;.."

Sound familiar? Let's proceed...

Screwtape calls us, humans, "amphibians" which is half spirit and half animal. I think Satan pictures us as ugly patients like a "half man, half horse" that you see in the movie, "The Witch, The Lion and The Wardrobe". Here's an interesting quote from Lewis:

"The Enemy's (God) determination to produce such a revolting hybrid was one of the things that determined Our Father (Satan) to withdraw his support from Him."

Apparently, Satan, who used to be one of the most beautiful angel in Heaven before the creation, thinks it's "unethical" to clone the Spirit and Flesh together. Now, I am just playing with words here and I know God can do anything He pleases because He is God! If I play with my toys, I can decide whether to dissect two toys and switch its parts over creating a relatively rare object. But that's what I would want to do.

Anyways, let's proceed with C.S.'s reading here on chapter 8:

"This means that while their spirit can be directed to an eternal object, their bodies, passions, and imaginations are in continual change, for to be in time means to change. Their nearest approach to constancy, therefore, is undulation - the repeated return to a level from which they repeatedly fall back, a series of troughs and peaks. If you had watched your patient carefully you would have seen this undulation in every department of his life - his interest in his work, his affection for his friends, his physical appetites, all go up and down."

Satan knows we go through the "..valley of the shadow of death.." (Ps. 23) which is our trough. There are times when we're at our all-time lows (spiritually and physically)! And it is to be expected. Other times, we experience a high level of spiritual energy where everything seem to be so swell!! So be forewarned, everyone will always have a valley to pass through.

"The dryness and dullness through which your patient is now going are not, as you fondly suppose, your workmanship; they are merely a natural phenomenon which will do us no good unless you make a good use of it."

Powerful thought!!! It is not Satan's work, it's life itself. God allowed the undulation to happen for a reason. He knows we need the undulation experiences everyday! Consider Adam feeling lonely when seeing pairs of animals keeping one another company. Satan didn't enter the picture til after Eve was formed.

"To decide what the best use of it is, you must ask what use the Enemy (God) wants to make of it, and then do the opposite. Now it may surprise you to learn that in His efforts to get permanent possession of a soul, He relies on the troughs even more than on the peaks; some of His special favourites have gone through longer and deeper troughs than anyone else."

"And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28 (nas)

Amen! Do you have a struggle that you feel it's impossible to overcome? Then God wants to use that to show His awesome power. Do you have a difficult issue that you've become entangled with? God relies on them for a purpose.

"He really does want to fill the universe with a lot of loathsome little replicas of Himself - creatures whose life, on its miniature scale, will be qualitatively like His own, not because He has absorbed them but because their wills freely conform to His."

"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will." Romans 12:2 (niv)

"As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance." 1 Peter 1:14 (niv)

"We (evil ones) want cattle who can finally become food; He (God) wants servants who can finally become sons. We want to suck in, He wants to give out. We are empthy and would be filled; He is full and flows over. Our war aim is a world in which Our Father Below (Satan) has drawn all other beings into himself: the Enemy wants a world full of beings united to Him but still distinct."

Right! Satan devours, God overflows with blessings and love!!

And lastly,

"And that is where the troughs come in. You must have often wondered why the Enemy does not make more use of His power to be sensibly present to human souls in any degree He chooses and at any moment... ...He leaves the creature to stand up on its own legs - to carry out from the will alone duties which have lost all relish. It is during such trough periods, much more than during the peak periods, that is growing into the sort of creature He wants it to be. Hence the prayers offered in the state of dryness are those which please Him best... ...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."

It's all about faith! Many people will think God is so far away that they have been forsaken. But God is always near and watching. He hears prayers. But He will respond when He wants to. He knows when is a good time and when is not. We must always praise God through every undulation of life!