Pleased with Their Stumbles

In C. S. Lewis’ classic book, Screwtape Letters,

Screwtape, the senior demon, writes to his nephew,

Wormwood, who was charged with making sure

his “patient” does not choose God, the Enemy.

Screwtape admits to Wormwood that the Enemy

seems to really like the humans,

but that sometimes He lets them go their own way.

It totally boggles his mind that even when they stumble,

God still loves the “little vermin.”

His words offer such great encouragement to us

as we go stumbling along our way.

"The Enemy wants them to learn to walk

and must therefore take away His hand;

and if only the will to walk is really there

He is pleased even with their stumbles....

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."

~ The Screwtape Letters

There are days when the doubts and questions

loom larger than our faith.

But that is our problem, not His.

He is only looking for the will to walk with Him.

When I still can say, “Not my will but Yours be done,”

regardless of what I see or don’t see,

my perfect pitch pierces the ears of His enemy.

Though I walk through the valley, He is with me.

Though I stumble and fall, He is for me.

For the LORD takes pleasure in His people;

Psalms 149:4

Who hasn’t stumbled that they can not know this truth?

Who hasn’t received grace upon grace knowing that

the Lord may let go of our hand but never our heart?

I will most likely stumble many more times

in this wild adventure with the One my heart loves,

but I rehearse the words that Screwtape mutters:

“He is pleased even with their stumbles.”

Stumbling on, receiving grace, surrending to His will.

Moment by moment, over and over.

Image: http://pinterest.com/cwazylawa/happiness/