Lessons from Screwtape is a series of posts based on C.S. Lewis’ book, The Screwtape Letters, in which a principle demon, Screwtape, converses with a lower demon about their tactics to prey on humans.

Don’t worry, todays post is not suggesting that God’s goodness is limited; not in the least. But it will address why God’s goodness often appears to be limited from our vantage point. Think about it, why is it that we speak of a God of unlimited power, but only see His power in limited intervals? Why not simply reveal the completeness of His power unendingly for all the world to see? The answer has to do with God’s purpose in revealing Himself to Humans at all. Screwtape (C.S. Lewis’s fictional demon) helps us understand this as he trains Wormwood (another demon) how to use the changing perception of God’s presence in the lives of Christians; what he calls the “troughs and peaks”.

The “troughs” are times in which God’s goodness is only faintly observable by the Christian. When tragedy strikes, when our hearts are shaken, when needs are not met, or when evil triumphs. The Christian life is full of instances and even phases where it seems that God’s goodness is faint. Its barely getting us by. We want the intense brightness of the sun to shine on us, but all we feel is a nightlight in the middle of dark times. Screwtape examines why these “troughs” are so important to the Christian:

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. The reason is this. To us a human is primarily food; our aim is the absorption of its will into ours, the increase of our own area of selfhood at its expense. But the obedience which the Enemy demands of men is quite a different thing. One must face the fact that all the talk about His love for men, and His service being perfect freedom, is not (as one would gladly believe) mere propaganda, but an appalling truth. 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. We want cattle who can finally become food; He wants servants who can finally become sons.

Lewis, C. S.. The Screwtape Letters (pp. 38-39). HarperOne. Kindle Edition.

The reason for these troughs, these times where God’s goodness seems limited, has to do with the nature of God’s desired relationship with His people. Screwtape loathsomely admits that God’s desires are different than his own and his Father Below (the devil). Whereas all demonic creatures want to consume and annihilate humans, God’s intention is to grow them into beings who share a life similar to His own. Adoption into his royalty is how the Bible puts it. The book of Romans tells us:

“All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Romans 8.14-15)

But how does God use these “troughs” to grow us into beings that can share in His glory? Would it not make more sense to make His presence overwhelmingly known to us? Would he not secure every soul if He would just be fully and eternally present? Not so fast.

We often forget that God is working with the human will. If it were God’s desire to simply have humans follow a set of rules, compulsion is simple; just ask any tyrant or dictator. And compulsion is what the fullest degree of His presence ...