“Jesus was led by the Spirit out into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, after which he was very hungry, and the tempter came and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to turn into loaves.’ But he replied, ‘Scripture says: Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Matthew 4:1-11
Her life was changed in under five minutes.
At about 11 pm, a woman is seen walking slowly into a dimly lit corridor, in front of a gate door in a slummy setup. She appears to wait to be waiting for the door to open for her to enter. From nowhere, two men appear. One pretends to ask the lady for directions. Suddenly, he grabs her in the neck, wrestles her down and holds her tight, with all his energy. Twisting, and tightening the squeeze with both hands and legs. The accomplice, another man in his mid-20’s, kicks repeatedly the woman in her stomach, grabs the victim’s handbag as he continues to kick.
Unknown to the goons, a CCTV camera in the corridor captures this gruesome crime in action. It is difficult to watch the clip to the end without becoming emotional. You want to enter into the video and help the woman. As the squeeze on her throat is continuously tightened, in addition to the hard stomach beatings, she plays for dead. Just gives up with abandon and submits. It is her last act of self-defense. By the time the fraudsters are done stealing from her, she is extremely tortured, and in her last seconds of life. You can see the goons drop her down from their grip like a bag of rubbish, as they give her the last beating and walk away smiling. It is by mere luck she survives the ordeal, as one can see some slight resemblance of life a few seconds the goons let her free. These are the real smiling assassins. Jose Chameleon, a musician, has a song for such people, “bayuda.’ Evil is real. And it is closer to you than you think. As a fraud examiner and investigator for the past 10 years, I know that many criminals attack folks they know.
A senior manager, I will call Jane, once confided in me about satan in action at her workplace. In a bid to protect his job, Peter, one of the colleagues worried about his impending job loss to a competent Jane put some conspicuous suspicious items around the office. “These are fetishes. They are charms. Be worried”, they told her.
Being a Christian, Jane decided to fight head-on. “Never show any weaknesses,” she remembered of her spiritual teacher’s lessons. She got the blessed Idol of Mother Mary and put it on her desk, and another small one on top of the door into her office. She asked her priest to visit over for a prayer and blessing in her office.
Two days later, Jane told me, she had a dream that was revealing and gave her strength. Here is Jane.
“I was walking from lunch when a car came from nowhere rammed into me. The driver must have been intentional to kill me for he veered off the road, to where I was on the walking lane. After the accident, I could see so many people come over to look at me. They thought I was dead. But I wasn’t. At least that is how I felt. I was not yet dead, fighting for my life, but no one was helping. I was begging on top of my voice, shouting, “take me to the hospital” but no one was hearing me. I was helpless and alone. I saw some of my friends and co-workers come over. No one was helping. They were just talking, oblivious of my cries to them for help. They would come, look at me helplessly, talk briefly and go. For one of my best friends, I thought she would keep around me for some time, just to observe me so that she notices that I was not yet dead. She didn’t. Like others, she looked and quickly, off she left me.
It occurred to me I was all long alone.
As I fought for my life, someone wearing a dark suit, covered from head to toe, holding a spade, came closer to me. Looked into my eyes, reached out to my hand and started pulling my dead body as it dragged on the ground. It was painful. I was shouting at the top of my voice.
As the masked dark clothed man pulling me was about to turn the corner, a man in full white clothes came, he stops in the way of the dark man, who releases me instantly he sees him. This dark man runs away. The white man then holds me into his hands. Suddenly, I wake up.”
Welcome back from Jane’s dream. What do you learn from it?
Evil is all around us. All you can do is to show no weaknesses. Don’t get ready, stay ready. You must keep your spiritual glass full else evil will easily have you for dinner. If you are not with us, you are with them. Which side are you?
I wish you a great Sunday and a happy Lent season. Have any questions for me? Follow me on twitter, @mustaphamugisa for weekly book titles. To be inspired, visit mustaphabm3.sg-host.com. Bernabas Mustapha Mugisa is Mr. Strategy, the architect of #Mindspark.
