The War

As I live and work here in Moscow I am increasingly reminded of Spiritual warfare and how it is so present and active in our lives. My new roommate and I were talking and we both acknowledged how we could feel our thoughts drifting away to other things when we most needed our thoughts to remain on the much needed issues (mainly things like children's church, or youth group activities).

The conversation reminded me of a movie quote, actually two. The first comes from "The Usual Suspects" and has profound and scary spiritual implications. It's a good movie, though violent and has very bad language. I'd recommend seeing it if you can catch it on TV, where they cut the unnecessary stuff out. In it, Kevin Spacey says "The Devil's greatest accomplishment was convincing the world he didn't exist." What a real and frightening statement. The Devil is real, but most people either don't believe in him or don't believe he has any influence. And so it turns to something we don't acknowledge. And then it turns to something even more dangerous and insidious. That reminds me a quote from "The Recruit." Another good movie, worth seeing. In it Al Pacino says, referring to the CIA, but applicable to spiritual warfare "Your victories no one will ever know about, and your failures will be known throughout the world." Or something approximating that. This is often how spiritual warfare is. It's a covert war, one usually waged internally. And when we win, God knows and we know, and few others. When we lose, well, it manifests itself so that everyone knows and we are humiliated and often embittered. It's scary.

I have said that we often give the devil to much credit, and I do believe that to a point. We are responsible for our actions, and to say "It's the Devil" is removing responsibility from where it should lie. However, that's not to say he doesn't exists, and he doesn't lean on us. And is he good. He knows just when and where to push, in such ways as I don't notice at the time. On reflection I can usually spot such, as the thoughts and doubts that arise are so out of place with the situation and my mindset coming into it that it's amazing I didn't notice it.

That's what I mean by spiritual warfare. Maybe when the world believed in an alive and active Satan spiritual warfare was something more akin to the Exorcist (a movie I haven't, and have no desire to see). Maybe that's why demon-possession came to a climax around the time of Christ. But with a public disavowal of Satan he's moved to where he can lurk in our lives unseen, akin to the real warfare we see in the world today with terrorism. This insidious disapearing trick pushes us to a more quiet, and often lonely, spiritual battle. One where our victories are unlauded, but our failures may become the object of gossip and ridicule.

If any of you who read this are not Christian, then you probably think I'm nuts. That's okay, I can live with being thought crazy. I do, however, caution you not to judge something you can not accurately see. What I speak about is a war that is only observed by those involved, and without Christ, involvement is purely collarteral (or possibly that of an unknowing and unprepared victim) on humanity's part.

A really good book on this is C.S. Lewis' "Screwtape Letters." While I might not agree with all of his theological statements, the basic idea of how Satan works is probably frighteningly accurate.