In The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis uses fiction to teach on the strategies used by the kingdom of darkness against humanity. In this story a senior demon (Screwtape) teaches his protégé (Wormwood) how to disrupt the advancement of the kingdom of God by keeping humans away from their calling. At one point Screwtape gives Wormwood a direct order: “Your job, Wormwood, is to provide me with people who do not care.” And such has been the work of the kingdom of darkness against Christians. Unwittingly, in the desire to “love and serve God,” many have lived according to the idea that if you abandon or deaden all other desires, your love for God will become exclusive and pure.
And so a woman walks away from her love to sculpt beauty through gardening and interior decorating, because there is no time in this world’s condition for such frivolities, and then she wonders why her heart seems so dull toward God. A man shuts down his inclination toward and enjoyment of assessing how to make something better, because he was told he just creates more work for everyone, slows things down, and doesn’t know how to be content. So he walks with unspoken shame over the fact that he feels closer to God in his workshop than in church, his quiet times, or ministry activity.
You see, the heart is a delicate thing. Like the ecosystem, you cannot eliminate one element without affecting another. How can you “love the Lord your God with all your heart” (Mark 12:30) if you have lost it through neglect and starvation?
