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- 3R THURSDAY: The Law of Undulation
3R Thursday: The Law of Undulation
Rumination
This week’s rumination comes from The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. Here, Screwtape, a senior demon, is admonishing Wormwood, a demon in training, about Wormwood’s excitement that a new Christian’s “religious phase is dying away.” Wormwood thinks the decrease in the Christian’s devotion to Christ, prayer, and Bible reading is the result of Wormwood’s diligent efforts. Screwtape belittles Wormwood’s naiveté and begins to pontificate:
Humans are amphibians—half spirit and half animal. (The Enemy's determination to produce such a revolting hybrid was one of the things that determined Our Father to withdraw his support from Him.) As spirits they belong to the eternal world, but as animals they inhabit time. This means that while their spirit can be directed to an eternal object, their bodies, passions, and imaginations are in continual change, for to be in time means to change.
Their nearest approach to constancy, therefore, is undulation—the repeated return to a level from which they repeatedly fall back, a series of troughs and peaks. If you had watched your patient carefully you would have seen this undulation in every department of his life—his interest in his work, his affection for his friends, his physical appetites, all go up and down. As long as he lives on earth, periods of emotional and bodily richness and liveliness will alternate with periods of numbness and poverty. The dryness and dullness through which your patient is now going are not, as you fondly suppose, your workmanship; they are merely a natural phenomenon which will do us no good unless you make a good use of it.
Reflection
Did C.S. Lewis call us “amphibians?”
Like frogs and whatnot?
Well, sorta.
We have to go back further to the Greek and Latin origins of the word.
Amphi = both
Bios = life
“Both lives” or “having two modes of existence”
Both here on earth—inside of time.
And an “eager longing” (Romans 8:19) for Heaven—outside of time.
Both of the flesh.
And of the spirit.
We are bound by time.
We constantly change.
The grass withers, the flower fades.
Yet we know that the best moments in our lives are when time is nowhere near our minds.
Deep sleep
Playing with our kids—joyfully
True worship—men belting out praises to our Savior and Lord
Engaging conversations with old friends and new.
Early morning dives into the waters of Scripture
Hiking through the mountains
And then we “snap back to reality.”
How is it possible to be both confined by time and transcend time at the same time?
We are dual-natured.
We have two lives, two modes of existence.
We are amphibians.
Our spirit belongs to the eternal world.
We eagerly long to be with Christ, praising God.
Yet our bodies belong to this world—the physical, earthly domain.
We age, ache, and aspire to go home.
How do we account for the back and forth, the up and down between the spirit and the flesh?
C. S. Lewis calls it the Law of Undulation: "the repeated return to a level from which [we] repeatedly fall back, a series of troughs and peaks.”
Some call this a “sinusoidal wave” or “sine wave” for short.
We see these ups and downs, back and forths in nature all the time:
The sun rises. The sun sets.
The earth goes around and comes back again: Summer. Fall. Winter. Spring. Summer.
Ocean waves—back and forth
The grass withers and then sprouts back
The flower fades and then blooms again
Even the very beating of our hearts
Likewise, we go up and down and back and forth in our spiritual growth.
Over time, we may think we’re growing spiritually, but it’s only a cyclical back and forth—not actual growth.
It’s Sisyphus pushing the boulder up the mountain, only for it to roll back down again.
Demons are trained to “make a good use” of this “natural phenomenon.”
All they need is incremental separation.
And this back and forth—this Law of Undulation—applies to other areas of our lives as well.
Interest in our work
Affection for our friends
Physical appetites
Reading habits
Bible study
Discipling and disciplining our children
Loving our wives like Christ loves the Church
How then do we overcome the Law of Undulation and truly grow in our sanctification as we strive to become more like Christ?
Love God.
Pursue Christ.
Pray for the Holy Spirit.
And over time, God conforms us to His image as we draw closer to Him.
We are “amphibians” in that we live two lives: spiritual and earthly.
Yet we are called to live according to God’s purpose and be conformed to His image.
Over time, we should become more like God and less like “amphibians.”
Paul touches on this “natural phenomenon” as well when he encourages the Romans to anticipate the future glory. Paul says:
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24For in this hope we were saved.
Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
26Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
31What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
And by the end of our lives, when we can look back and see all the work God has accomplished, I pray that the Cross far exceeds the distance between the peaks and troughs along the way.
Reading
The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis
The Common Law by Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
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