“We didn’t count on suffering…we didn’t
count on pain…but if the blessing’s in the valley…then in the river I will
wait…” – Delirious
Christians
often speak of “seasons.” Ecclesiastes
3:1 says “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under
heaven…” One of these seasons is what
Screwtape calls the “trough.” In letters
eight and nine of The Screwtape Letters, the elder demon, Screwtape,
writes to his nephew, a novice demon, about “The Law of Undulation.” This law is a major principle in the
Christian walk. While Wormwood, the
novice, is thrilled about this condition of spiritual dryness, the trough,
Screwtape is much more cautious, and writes at great length about how God (The
Enemy) uses the trough to His advantage.
Screwtape’s terminology is of “troughs and peaks,” but Christians often
refer to “wilderness” or “desert” seasons, and to “hills and valleys.” It’s all the same concept. All Christians, at some point, go through
these ups and downs.
While
Wormwood is eagerly planning the ways he can use his “patient’s” trough to his
advantage – and in fact, the demonic can
use troughs to their benefit – he gets a stern correction from his uncle: “Now it may surprise you to learn that in His
[The Enemy’s] efforts to get permanent possession of a soul, He relies on the
troughs even more than the peaks; some of His special favorites have gone
through longer and deeper troughs than anyone else.” Consider Moses, who spent 40 years in the
wilderness with the Israelites, but who remained faithful throughout. Or Job, who had all kinds of horrible things happen to him, but still declared, “Though
He slay me, yet will I trust Him” (Job 15:1).
Or David, who often felt abandoned by God, and did not hesitate in saying so.
In Psalm 22, he cries out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken
Me? Why are You so far from helping Me,
and from the words of My groaning? O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do
not hear; and in the night season, and am not silent…” Perhaps even Jesus was
in this trough, when he echoed David’s words on the cross. Certainly these are good examples of God’s
beloved experiencing deep valleys, or troughs, as Screwtape calls them. Screwtape also says “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.” All of the aforementioned people
prove Screwtape’s point. Despite their
trials, their pain, or what seems like God’s absence, they ultimately remained
faithful, and what’s more, they remained obedient.
Troughs,
or valleys, or wilderness seasons, generally do not constitute the fun part of
being in relationship with God. In these
seasons, it is harder to hear God’s voice, feel His presence, or even see
evidence of it anywhere. Doubt and
depression often enter in. Screwtape
harps on this when he encourages Wormword to get his patient to think in terms
of “phases.” We wonder if we ever heard God, if He was ever there, if we really witnessed those miracles.
We can even begin to wonder if we are really “saved.” These are the times where we must rely on
what we know to be true, not what we feel is true. It doesn’t matter what the trial is. What matters is our response. Are we going to give up on God, write our
whole relationship off as simply a “religious phase,” as Screwtape would like? Or are we going to take advantage of what God has for us in the
wilderness?
Looking
through the Scriptures, it is interesting to note how often those in the
wilderness are led there. They didn’t just find themselves there,
completely by accident. The Israelites
were led out of Egypt into the wilderness.
Not only were they brought out of slavery, but they witnessed miracle
after miracle, like the parting of the Red Sea, bitter waters made sweet, manna
sent from heaven, and water brought from the rock. It might be safe to assume that God was with
them. And indeed He says “For the Lord
your God has blessed you in all the work of your hand. He knows your trudging through this great
wilderness. These 40 years the Lord your
God has been with you; you have
lacked for nothing” (Deut. 2:7). Jesus
was led by the Spirit into the
wilderness, where He countered satan’s tempting with the Word (Matt. 4, and a
good lesson for us). And then there is
Hosea 2:14-16, which is perhaps the most moving passage about the wilderness in
the Bible.
14)”Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
Will bring her into the wilderness,
And speak comfort to her.
15)I will give her vineyards from there,
And the Valley of Achor as a door of hope.
She shall sing there,
As in the days of her youth,
As in the days when she came up from the land of Egypt.
16)”And it shall be, in that day,”
Says the Lord,
“That you will call Me ‘My Husband,’
And no longer call Me ‘My Master.’”
While we may not
see, hear or feel God in the wilderness, in the trough, in the valley, it is in
this place that we are schooled in His grace, His provision, and His love. The Israelites – though they complained
bitterly – lacked for nothing, with all the miracles they witnessed and lived
on. Job had everything restored to him.
David continued to offer that “sacrifice of praise” (Hebrews 13:15,) and
was considered “a man after God’s own heart.”
And I don’t need to describe what Jesus did. In the trough, we have to walk by faith, and
not by sight, which we as Christians are called to do, anyway. (2 Cor.
5:7). We have to trust that God is with
us, even if we can’t hear or feel Him.
And we know that He’s with us,
because He promises to never leave or forsake us. While we may enjoy the
mountaintop experiences, or the peaks, we grow
in the wilderness, in the troughs.
Screwtape himself says, “It is during such trough periods, that it [the
human] 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.” In the trough we learn to rely on God and on His promises. We learn to seek more diligently after Him,
and in doing so, can be rewarded with the some of our most intimate and rich
moments with Him. Look at what He says
in Hosea: He will “allure her, will
bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfort to her.” Comfort in the wilderness? Yes, it is possible. And in verse 16, He says “You will call Me
‘My Husband,’ and no longer call Me ‘My Master.’” What a picture of intimacy! On the mountaintop, or on the peak, to use
Screwtape’s word, we tend to become self-sufficient. In the trough, we are unable to be
self-sufficient. We may find ourselves
stripped of all that we once relied on, meaning that we must depend solely on
God. In this time, it helps to remember
that His strength is made perfect in our weakness (2 Cor. 12:9). And in the trough, we are indeed quite weak.
I don’t mean to
paint such a glorified picture of the trough.
It is not an easy season to be in, and we can be quick to resent it, and
resent God for it. But as I said before,
it is not simply our being in the wilderness that matters; it is what we do
with our time in it that makes the difference (and often determines how long we
remain there). It can be a time of real
intimacy with God and tremendous growth in our faith. It can also be a time of depression, doubt,
and even worse, self-pity. This is when
Screwtape and company can really enter in and rob us of what God has for
us. Doubt can destroy all the good God
had planned for us. Wormwood is advised
about this: “Do not let him [the human]
suspect the law of undulation. Let him
assume that the first ardours of his conversion might have been expected to
last, and ought to have lasted, forever, and that his present dryness is an
equally permanent condition.” It is
easy, when in the trough, to see it as permanent, and lose hope, and even
worse, lose faith. Screwtape continues: “When you have caused him to assume that the
trough is permanent, can you not persuade him that his ‘religious phase’ is
just going to die away like all the previous phases?” We need to be like Jesus in the wilderness,
responding to the devil’s taunting with the truth, the way Jesus responded with
“for it is written…” each time the devil tempted Him. And the truth is that the trough is not
permanent; God’s love is.
We cannot reason
our way out of the wilderness, the valley, the trough. We may remember with longing the joyous
feeling of being on that mountaintop, and work our hardest to get back up
there. But if we don’t pause, seek God
and see what He has for us, we miss the potential for so much. We might miss blessings, miracles, opportunity
for growth, and worst of all, true intimacy with God. Though it may be dark, the fire by night will
guide us, and we will lack for nothing.
God will be with us, even if His presence is not as readily apparent as
it once was. It may seem like He’s gone
silent, or even worse, left us. It may
seem like we are being punished for something.
This is not the truth. The truth
is that the wilderness – though difficult and often painful – is when we get to
mature as followers of Christ, to learn to rely on God rather than people or
things, to stand on His promises and not be swayed, no matter what may come
against us, and above all, to really draw near to Him, knowing that He never
has and never will leave us. In the
trough, if we respond well, Screwtape’s fears will be justified, and we will
become just the sort of “creature” God wants us to be.
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