The Safest Road to Hell

"Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one-the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts."I remember the first time that I read this letter. The chills that ran down my spine then are just as vivid now as they were then. This is one of the most haunting lines in any literary piece I have ever read. The truth in this statement is what gives it, it's blood chilling effect. Indeed, the entire Screwtape collection is full of very insightful ideas and comments on human behavior. But this chapter in particular, Letter 12, is one of his most prolific in my opinion.
I think the reason I have such a strong connection to this chapter is because I have seen it happen in my own life. It is so easy to become complacent with our situation. At least for me, I often tell myself that I am fine where I am. But it is in this sense of  satisfaction that we are most vulnerable. Our journey towards God never ends, and there is no way to stay at a flat level. Our faith either grows or it dwindles. The shifts do not have to be dramatic, in fact in the letters Screwtape suggests that the best method of bringing humans to Hell is through the slow path with few disturbances.
One of the biggest parts of this danger is what we surround ourselves with. This involves people, activities, and what we expose ourselves to. There are clear examples of this with people and activities. Community is one of the most important aspects of our faith-we need other people if we are to grow closer to God. But this means that we need people who want the same things that we want. The image my mother always told me, was imagine yourself on a rowing team. If you are rowing towards God but the other members of the crew are rowing towards other things then you will have a difficult if not impossible time making it to your goal.
 Activities are also pretty self explanatory. Actions speak louder than words. To be a Christian you have to live like a Christian. You cannot be considered a basketball player if you do not play basketball. To take the sports analogy further, imagine you are on the basketball team. If you are training for the state finals, are you going to practice drills or are you going to go eat junk food? Our actions and practices will be obvious in the final result, therefore we must diligently look to watch over our actions.
The final aspect, what we expose ourselves to is perhaps one of the trickiest to discern. Consider the things we are exposed to, music, movies, television, posters, the internet, books, magazines, newspapers, and many more. What are the messages that these things send us? And how do we respond to hearing, seeing, or reading them? And how do we decipher which are bad and which are good? Just because some TV shows are not morally sound does not mean that all TV is inherently bad. But how do we stay conscious of what is leading us down a dark path? There are only two answers I can think of. The first, is prayer. Ask for God's guidance. We cannot let the dim uneasiness draw us away from Him, we must stand before Him and let him pour light into our world to see just where we are. The second thing we can do relates to one of the other aspects. If we have surrounded ourselves with a strong fellowship of friends to support us, we can talk to them for their judgment. God can speak through them to us and together we can hold each other to accountability.

One caution I would give in all of this though, is not to remove ourselves from society completely. Rather, let us use our discernment to help bring renewal to the world. Just because I know my friend isn't a Christian does not mean I abandon my friendship. No! Instead, we show them God's love in our actions and if they are ever willing to hear we help try to bring them into the crew team with us. But you do not make them your source of reliance and dependency when it comes to your faith. Similarly, we should not pretend that our media is rampant with sex as well as other problems. We cannot close our eyes to it and make it go away. However we can work to change the current state of things. We must be in the world but not of the world. God's love and redemption is for everyone, so let us share it with them. While always staying alert that we do not slip down the path without milestones or signposts.