This is What C.S. Lewis Has to Say About The Future
How To Overcome The Fear of Uncertainty
C.S. Lewis was one of the greatest Christian writers to ever pick up the art in the 20th century.
The British author wrote many famous books including “Narnia,” “The Last Battle,” “ The Silver Chair,” and most notably “The Screwtape Letters.”
In “The Screwtape Letters,” C.S. Lewis curated a plot around the letters from an old, experienced demon (Screwtape), to a young, inexperienced demon (Wormwood) on how to tempt/guide his “subject” (the human) into Hell.
Each chapter is composed of a certain situation that highlights the weakness of human nature and how easily human beings are thrown off track to what they are meant to do (or even in some cases what they want to do).
The future, according to Lewis, is quite frankly just an encompassing place for“[inflaming] hope and fear.”
Screwtape tells Wormwood that “it is far better to make [human beings] live in the Future,” because “… it is unknown to them, so that in making them think about it we make them think of unrealities” (pg.76).
Simply put, humans fear what they don’t know.
Satan’s goal is to get us to focus on what we do not know, and to dwell on it.
C.S. Lewis also warns that “nearly all vices are rooted in the future. Gratitude looks to the past and love to the present; fear, avarice, lust, and ambition look ahead” (pg.76).
When we place all of our love and hope into something as unknown as the future, we are giving the future permission to “[haunt us] by visions of imminent heaven or hell upon earth” (pg.77).
Thinking about the future (in moderation) is okay to Lewis.
He argues that “ [God] wants men to think of the Future too — just so much as necessary for now planning the acts of justice or charity which will probably be their duty tomorrow” (pg.77).
But, when we allow our apprehensions about the future to hinder our capacity to fulfill today’s responsibilities, it erodes the authentic path that God has intended for our lives.
When has worrying about things you cannot control ever benefitted you?
The future is inevitable.
It is certain regardless of whether that is with or without you.
Only Satan wants to make these years feel insignificant to you and spin your mind into the distrust of God.
Life is nothing short of a thrilling rollercoaster ride.
When we are young, time seems slow like the ascending of the cart to the top of the track.
The higher we go (the expeditiousness of life increases), the more weary we get, and the more we start to distrust the foundation (God in this metaphor) of the rollercoaster.
We get scared because we don’t know what is coming in the near future.
We start to panic and question the capability of the engineers who designed the track (even though we saw many others before us ride it just fine!), and in this fear, we forget why we got on that roller coaster.
As the coaster goes on, just like our perspective of time, it rolls faster.
We get distracted by the speed of the cart and focus on the uncertainty of what is next.
This transpires into us not enjoying the ride and distracts us from the true beauty of what we call “life.”
One has two choices when the dilemma between fear and the unknown future arises.
They can fret about the unknown and forget about how they got to the position they are in, or they can trust God like a child trusts their parent.
We are all called to have faith like children and only in true surrender can we combat the fears centered around the uncertainty of the future.
Best regards,
Chris
Book Citation
Lewis, C. S. 2012. The Screwtape Letters. C. S. Lewis Signature Classic. London, England: William Collins.
