Since I am in a terrific mood, I want to give you some strategies to frustrate pagans, but the kind of strategies that require only basic faithfulness, not the varieties that demand you going out of your way to do something considered an irritant. Faithfulness is the most infuriating Christian virtue for Screwtape and his tribe. So, let’s begin with basic elements of this angelic enterprise:
First, go to church this Sunday like every other Sunday, but go especially prone to a happy disposition. Smile more and saturate yourself more in the life of the Church. Your presence on Sunday is an immediate affirmation that you prefer the culture of heaven above other competing cultures and that frustrates pagans because paganism by definition desires the world, the flesh and the devil.
Second, keep your kids close, but their imaginations closer. There will always be those who would love to conquer the worldview of your children, but I encourage you to fill the imagination of your child as an intentional strategy. Direct them to the words in the liturgy though they may not understand it, direct them to obedience though may still debate it, direct them to good music though they may not be able to sing it, and direct them to the kingdom for unto such belong the kingdom of heaven. The goal is to irritate pagans and nothing is more compelling as a strategy than planting seeds for a richer imagination in our little ones.
Finally, we ought to incorporate a desire to frustrate pagan thought by choosing to be discipled by the Scriptures. Keep the Bible first as the Word of God, as an interpreter of reality, as the tree of life, as the inerrant truth from heaven, as the light in the midst of darkness. Read it, but more than that, seek it after its words, language and grammar. Let it shape your greetings and console your fears. When you embrace the worship of the church, shape your child’s imagination, and put your trust in the written revelation of God, you irritate the pagans in our culture, but more importantly, you please your Lord.
