Saturday night Derek arranged for us to have a date night–which we actually could do with our new babysitter handy!–and took me out to dinner and to see The Screwtape Letters. As usual when I’m re-encountering Screwtape, I came away entertained and convicted on many points. The senior temptor’s advice on hindering prayer is quite applicable to my own life:
When the patient is an adult recently re-converted to the Enemy’s party, like your man, this is best done by encouraging him to remember, or to think he remembers, the parrot-like nature of his prayers in childhood. In reaction against that, he may be persuaded to aim at something entirely spontaneous, inward, informal, and unregularised; and what this will actually mean to a beginner will be an effort to produce in himself a vaguely devotional mood in which real concentration of will and intelligence have no part. One of their poets, Coleridge, has recorded that he did not pray “with moving lips and bended knees” but merely “composed his spirit to love” and indulged “a sense of supplication”. That is exactly the sort of prayer we want; and since it bears a superficial resemblance to the prayer of silence as practised by those who are very far advanced in the Enemy’s service, clever and lazy patients can be taken in by it for quite a long time.
I’m afraid I often fall for the “vaguely devotional mood” trap myself. I’m so tired in the mornings, I’m ready for a break by naptime, and once Tommy’s in bed, I’m distracted by all the evening chores I need to get done. Taking the time to concentrate on a thoughtful prayer is something that I let slip far too often at the end of my devotions. I always think I’ll keep praying through my list throughout the day, but more often than not, I just feel vaguely devotional for a few minutes before mommy distractions overtake me. With Screwtape fresh in my mind, I’ll be trying this week to take more time for concentrated prayer in my quiet times AND at quiet moments throughout the day. With that, I’m off to pray right now while Tommy naps!