This Chapter is all about "the law of Undulation." Screwtape uses this letter to discuss why this law of Undulation exists, what causes it, how God uses it for His purpose, and why He doesn't stop this process. Also, Screwtape goes into detail of God's master plan for us, and how it compares for Satan's master plan for us.

First off, Screwtape describes the law of Undulation as a series of troughs and peaks. This series of up's and down's (victories/defeats, strong times/weak times) plays out through every human's entire life. Screwtape says that the reason for this is because, "humans are amphibians -- half spirit and half animal...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 the repeatedly fall back, a series of troughs and peaks." The reason people undulate (go from WAY UP to WAY DOWN and back, over and over again) is because our spirit seeks constancy while our physical side CANNOT ever achieve ultimate constancy, because "to be in time means to change", and change is the opposite of constancy. The closest we can get to being permanently close to God is to waver up and down like a radio frequency. It is an attempt to stay as up as we can, but whenever we get there, we change, because we are bound by the physical laws of change. Screwtape notes that undulation is in every department of life -- from interests, to friendships, physical desires, to dreams. "As long as he lives on earth periods of emotional and bodily richness and liveliness will alternate with periods of numbness and poverty." Screwtape also notes that the man's "dryness and dullness" are not caused by Wormwood's efforts, but rather by the man's own tendency to undulate between high and low.

Screwtape is quick to clarify that natural undulation is to no benefit of their cause, and that contrary to what Wormwood might believe, the high's and low's are God's way of shaping the man (and all of us for that matter). He also teaches Wormwood that the best way to make good of the situation is to try to find out what God wants to use this period for and do the opposite. Screwtape goes into a comparison of Satan's plan for humans vs. God's plan for humans, "To us (demons) a human in primarily food; our aim is the absorption of its will into ours, the increase of our own area of selfhood at its expense. but the obedience which [God] demands of men is quite a different thing. One must face the fact that all the talk about His love for men, and His service being perfect freedom, is not mere propaganda, but the appalling truth. he really does want to fill the universe with a lot of loathsome little replicas of Himself...not because He has absorbed them but because their wills freely conform to His." Basically, Satan wants to just use us as "food" to make himself stronger and more dominant over the whole of the universe by absorbing us, while God wants to make us conform to His image, to merely make miniature "God's" out of us.

Screwtape notes that the way God shapes us into Himself is over the long-run by the process of progressive undulation (undulation that has the slow but sure result of getting us closer to God and more like Him). Screwtape even marks the fact that, "in [God's] efforts to get permanent possession of the soul, He relies on the troughs even more than on the peaks; some of His special favorites have gone through longer and deeper troughs than anyone else."

The reason why God allows us to go through periods of dryness, loneliness, and spiritual lowness is because He uses them to guide us into a state where we more accurately reflect Him. God does this because he can't use force or indisputability (NEW WORD!) to get people to come to Him. This isn't to say that He isn't capable of that, but rather, "His scheme forbids Him to use [them]. Merely to override a human will...would be for Him useless. He cannot ravish. He can only woo." This is because God doesn't want creates to ravish, but sons and daughters to woo. God doesn't want robots who are forced into a relationship, but clear-minded people who willingly choose to have a relationship with Him."

God's strategy is this, "He is prepared to do a little overriding at the beginning," just to open us up to God, and to make a relationship with Him an option for us (He does thing through hard times, chance meetings with people who invite us to church, and other things that HE PUTS IN OUR LIVES), "But He never allows this state of affairs to last long. Sooner or later He withdraws, if not in fact, at least form their conscious experience (we don't feel Him there)...[God] leave [us] to stand up on our own legs -- to carry out from [our] will alone duties which have lost all relish (this is why quiet times are NOT always easy). It is during such trough periods, much more than during the peak periods, that [we] grow into the sort of creature [God] wants [us] to be. Hence the prayers offered in the state of dryness are those which please [God] best."

Screwtape notes that Satan's plan relies on them continually tempting men into his camp. The incentives he uses are things that make us feel good (drugs, sex, alcohol, rage, money in excess, etc.), but God doesn't want us to be in His camp for the incentives, but because we clearly see the situation as it is (without having our vision skewed by pleasures) and we solemnly choose Him. "[God] cannot 'tempt' to virtue as [Satan] does to vice. He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away His hand." Screwtape goes on to note that even is we mess up and stumble, "IF ONLY THE WILL TO WALK IS REALLY THERE, [God] IS PLEASED." This explains how we can be called to God's standards, because if our will is truly to follow God, He is pleased with us despite our failings...this all hinges on us giving God ALL our heart and effort, if we don't, then it doesn't please Him, and it doesn't count.

It is through slowly weaning us out of a reliance on God's presence and overriding that He shapes us more closely into His likeness. That is why Screwtape says, "Our cause is never more in danger than when human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy's will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys." We are closest to God when, despite the fact we don't feel Him and don't feel like following Him (because all His aid for us is absent in the present), we still obey and choose to live like God rather than to forsake Him...this is a sign of great spiritual maturity.

WOW, that was long and deep and convicting. I see pretty clearly that I rely on God's presence and overriding of circumstances too much. Far too often I give up or give in and despair because I don't feel His hand near. This is a real heart/life check for me, because although I can cite a lot of times when I've persevered without God giving me incentives to do so, I see so many times when I chose (and still choose) not to.

I think eventually I'm going to go through these chapters one by one and not just review them, but have like a 3hr quiet time on how to deal with all of this, because we are entering the portion of the book that relates in SO many ways in SO many things in SO many chapters, and calls me to change SO much on all of the topics...but I'll figure that out later.