“The Devil is no idle spirit, but a vagrant, runagate walker, that never rests in one place. The motive, cause, and main intention of his walking is to ruin man.”   – Thomas Adams

            This is a season few have ever known.  We are restless in a time of national division.  We sit on the cusp of a painful election cycle with so many trying to evoke a response with fear.  Add to that All Hallows Eve where many willingly turn their attention to darker things.  Hope is in short supply.

I was astounded this morning to watch a local morning news broadcast present a neighborhood Halloween display that was filled with complex theatrical terror.  Nightmarish, Hollywood terror filled the screen at 7 am with writhing corpses, flailing demonic clowns, and shrieking man-eating plants.  I feared for the children who would have to stand before these life-size monstrosities while the presenting adults laughed at their screams.  

What have we become?!  Why do we insist on creating nightmares for one another?  Why do some labor to make small children cry with fits of terror?  I realized the common action of their horror machines was a convulsive lunge, a spasmodic twitch, a chaotic aggression – what is often called a ‘jump scare’.  Our news cycle has turned into a jump scare – a litany of fearful expressions designed to horrify us into reacting without thinking.  Do not take the bait!  Do not be shaken into submission!  Do not let an emotional response to a shocking idea guide your decisions and shape your future.  Be thoughtful.  Test every idea by the Word of God.  Let the Lord lead you with patience and hope. 

Pray with me: “God, our Lord, King of ages, All-powerful and All-mighty, you who made everything and who transform everything simply by your will. You Who in Babylon changed into dew the flames of the ‘seven-times hotter’ furnace and protected and saved the three holy children. You are the doctor and the physician of our soul. You are the salvation of those who turn to you. We beseech you to make powerless, banish, and drive out every diabolic power, presence -- every evil influence and all evil actions aimed against us. O Lord, you who love humanity, we beg you to reach out your powerful hands and your most high and mighty arms and send the angel of peace over us, to protect us, body and soul. May he keep at bay and vanquish every evil power, every poison or malice invoked against us by corrupt and envious people. Then, under the protection of your authority may we sing, in gratitude, ‘The Lord is my salvation; whom should I fear? I will not fear evil because you are with me, my God, my strength, my powerful Lord, Lord of peace, Father of all ages.”

Yes, Lord our God, be merciful to us and save us from every threat or harm from the evil one, and protect us by raising us above all evil. We ask you this through your Son, Our Lord and Savior, Jesu Christ, and in His name we pray.”