The recent event in Nairobi is the stuff of which nightmares are made. Trapped inside a building, under fire from brutal men (and woman?). It is significant of course that the terrorists went for an up-market shopping mall, a symbol of wealth and prosperity, hitting a country where it would hurt most.
I have been thinking this week about the interior life. Our spirits sometimes feel they are being invaded by hostile forces which threaten us: fear, unfulfilled ambition, anxiety, low self-esteem, desire for wealth, power or recognition. We all have different 'soft spots' in the landscape of our lives, which we try to protect in a variety of different ways. It's what sometimes makes us aggressive, over-sensitive, depressed or moody.
I am struck by something CS Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity, borrowing an analogy from George MacDonald. Imagine yourself as a house, in a bad state of repair. As we grow in grace, it is as if God is fixing the damage but then we realise he has another plan altogether. Lewis concludes,
You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but God is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it himself.
Thinking about the interior life, what is going on in the minds and the hearts of terrorists? How corrupted have they become? What can persuade them to sacrifice themselves not for the life but for the death of others - thinking of the Christians recently killed in Pakistan? It is as if they themselves have been invaded, and the spirit of their creator God driven out.
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