The Screwtape Letters

I went looking for my copy of Mere Christianity this week while on vacation, and it wasn't on the correct book shelf. Pretty sure it's on one of the other three shelves somewhere. Anyhow, in the C.S. Lewis section, I found The Screwtape Letters. I love this book. For those of you unfamiliar with it, it's a book of letters written by Screwtape, a demon high in the service of satan, written to his nephew Wormwood, who is assigned a human to keep from God. He fails, the subject becomes a Christian, but then the task is too keep him ineffective. There are some statements in it that really stick out to me. This first one I'm going to share really stuck out.
"He (God) cannot "tempt" to virtue as we do to vice. He 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."
I read this the day after I posted my resolution #3 where I wiped out and I resolved not to fall as much. Then I read this. He is pleased with my stumbles, if I'm willing to walk. While I really hate falling down, both literally and spiritually, this made me feel better about wiping out. The paragraph ends with this sentence
"Our cause (demons) 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 and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys." (page 40)
I have felt this place in the universe. Fortunately, I don't have to stay there. This book always makes me think of the Scripture James 2:19
"You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror."
If you are up for a good read, fun and entertaining and thought provoking all at once, check it out. You won't be disappointed.
There are two other passages from the book that I will most likely share my thoughts on also. Not that I can add anything to C.S. Lewis, but I love the chapter on humility, or false humility that the demons promote in us, and the chapter on church attendance, written in 1942 that is so pertinent today.