Ostriches and zealots

I used to be an ostrich.  Regarding what I believed in the devil and demons, that is.  I was young, and way more concerned with getting to know Jesus, and evil was, you know, evil.  I didn’t want to get close enough to understand it, for fear I would get spiritual cooties.  Ignorance, I thought, would be bliss.

But the day came when I picked up Frank Peretti’s book, This Present Darkness.  It was a suspense/thriller, and wasn’t in any way preachy.  I doubt Mr. Peretti meant it to be a theological treatise, but the story was balanced and scriptural.  And vivid…oh, so vivid.  I seem to remember some wild dreams, and for a time, every odd thing made me wonder at the spiritual forces behind it. 

Obviously, neither of these is a good way to live.  Being an ostrich means living by fear, and being a zealot means giving undue attention and power to spiritual forces other than God Himself. 

I love Neil’s quote from the Screwtape Letters:  There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils.  One is to disbelieve their existence.  The other is to believe and feel an unhealthy interest in them.  They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.

I looked it up, and C.S. Lewis wrote Screwtape Letters in 1942.  Nearly 70 years have gone by, and not much has changed. 

Being willing to investigate and understand what goes on in the heavenly realms is a must for mature Christians – heck, it helps make sense of the world we live in.  Even more a priority is doing so while keeping God at the center of our awe and respect.