"Remember, he is not, like you, a pure spirit. Never having been a human (Oh that abominable advantage of the Enemy's!) you don't realise how enslaved they are to the pressure of the ordinary." -The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis
This one quote, this two and a half lines of type, is what I want to emphasize on. This quote comes from an excellent novel by C.S. Lewis (which what of his material isn't excellent?) called The Screwtape Letters. For those of you who don't know, in summary, this book is about an elder demon trying to teach a lower level demon the ways of the trade, in other words, how to be a jam up demon and the best ways to toy with our minds. This quote comes from the heart of one of the many of letters form the elder demon. I won't go much more into the book with names and more talk about it, but it is for sure worth the read. But for now, this quote is what I'm concerned with. Just know in this letter the elder demon is talking about ways to distract us and lead us astray from God. In some of the previous lines before this quote he is discussing how it is good for the lower level demon to know how to make us caught up in "real life" but to never make us question what "real" means. (A brilliant quote also)
So now with a little background I want to sort of dissect this one quote.
-"Remember, he is not, like you, a pure spirit."
The "he" is the demon's "patient" or human they are assigned to, and the "you" is the demon.
Which is obviously wholly spirit and not one bit human.
-"Never having been a human (Oh that abominable advantage of the Enemy's)"
The never having been human reference is geared toward the demon because like I mentioned before a demon is a whole spirit, and never having been human. The next line though, that is what I want to mainly focus on here. So just know I am saving this line for the larger discussion underneath.
-"you don't realise how enslaved they are to the pressure of the ordinary."
This line is genius right here. I could easily write a novel on just these 13 words. What I think is important here mainly though is the idea of us being a prisoner to society. We are truly enslaved to the ordinary. If you aren't this shape, if you don't wear these clothes, if you don't act this way, or if you don't go party or drink then you are labeled as not being ordinary. We were meant for so much more through Christ. We are so complex and uniquely made that the word ordinary should never be used on another human being. But that is just it, we are slaves to a certain culture and way of thinking as Americans and if you don't fit that bill, your not normal. We are meant to be extraordinary, so stop drooling at the media, worrying so much about how well you fit in and seriously, I HATE cliches but just be you. Your already extraordinary so just be you and stop being a sheep. The only Shepard you should have is Jesus. Period.
Now I want to return to that second part of the second breakdown of the quote. Think about this for a second. Jesus was a human just like you. Wait, did that sink in? JESUS WAS A HUMAN TOO! See, what this elder demon (stupid demon) was so mad about is that Jesus has an advantage over the demons (in more ways than one obviously) but in one we are discussing is that he has been human. Demons are fully spirits and they know not how we operate. Well we don't know what demons know, and we shouldn't underestimate them but they are easily defeated unlike Jesus, but we do know that our Savior has an advantage over them because He was at once human just like you and me. Jesus was tempted with sin like we are on a daily basis, He knows what peer pressure feels like and He understands our enslavement to the ordinary as discussed before. He knows every single feeling you have and has honestly experienced more than you have. You think you have it bad? Try being Jesus. That is one life I thank God I didn't have to live honestly. The point though is this. When you feel like no one gets you, or that you can never be a certain something you want to be, or that your goals are unachievable then you need look no further than Jesus. He gets it completely. He's been there, and even when your best friend or worst enemy doesn't get your side of the story, Jesus knows what it feels like to be human and experience it all despite also having infinite knowledge as well. So really what I'm trying to get across is that when God seems so far away from you, or so you think, that your unreachable just know your being way too hard on yourself. When you think that God doesn't understand what your going through, then think about that again because He certainly does as Jesus went through it. Just like the title of the post. He's been you so He gets you. When your too busy running, Jesus is saying "HEY! BEEN THERE, DONE THAT, RUN TO ME!" I LOVE it how our Savior has an advantage over the devil and his petty minions below. That's only one advantage of course but think about how beautiful that is. Jesus was human, it was an advantage for Him, so take that and use it. Run to him because His arms are always open. His human arms, and spiritual ones as well.
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