“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present or the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” – Romans 8:38-39
As we stood in the midst of a funeral gathering in the middle of the local graveyard, I really wondered and struggled with the idea of witchcraft in Zambia. I guess I’ve always just considered it as nonexistent. I mean, Satan is real, but God has won that battle and through Him we can too. But witches? Evil spirits? Spells and curses? It always seemed like make believe – hocus pocus – material for Halloween and scary movies.
Here’s the context: A dear Zambian friend of ours – one we consider one of our (many) Zambian moms, lost her son this week. He had just been promoted to a managerial role at Shoprite in a town three hours from here. As the educated and well-employed member of the family, he was expected to support and help other family members. As we drove Mama Yoba and two other women to the mortuary to join the procession following the coffin from there to the graveyard, I asked how the young man died. Witchcraft was the response. She said he had just been promoted a few days before, and then he walked into his office, fell to the floor, and blood started coming out his eyes. Someone had cursed him. What?!? I tried to think of what kind of illness would have that sort of effect, but also thought back to a chapter I read in African Friends and Money Matters just last night. Here is an excerpt:
“In many rural communities, people are afraid to accumulate more goods or prosperity than their neighbors and kin, for fear of creating jealousy which may lead to reprisals being carried out against them on an occult level. It is common for certain people to use occult means, through the mediations of … workers of magic, to cause the failure of competitors, to achieve their own success, or as a leader to ensure that people will agree with him or her. There is general fear of such reprisals, and a significant amount of economic development is held back because of it…. As occult rites are carried out in secret, people never know who may be taking action against them, even from within their own family.”
So then I find myself wondering – how do people view us? Do there spells and curses have any power over us? I mean, our God is bigger and more powerful, but the verse in Romans doesn’t tell us these things don’t exist, just that they can’t separate us from God. Asking Luke his thoughts, he said, “Nothing can affect our immortality.” True? Yes. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ – eternally. But that isn’t exactly comforting during this life. It doesn’t mean we have a free and easy joyride here. We can pray God’s protection over each other and our loved ones and our home and things – praying that the Spirit will guide us and help us discern between good and evil, but ultimately, when it’s our time, we will go home to the Lord. It’s not that I’m afraid of death – what a joyous time of celebration and wonder Heaven will be. But I’m scared to death of dying – and the process. As if car wrecks and natural disasters and diseases and crime aren’t enough to be afraid of, witchcraft is a realm I don’t understand, and find quite frightening.
We had heard other references to the occult usually in regard to preventing any sort of evil power from taking hold – things like a specific way the umbilical cord is destroyed when a baby is born, certain birth defects being referred to as a result of witchcraft, trees uprooting themselves and then standing back up, but I guess this was our closest encounter with anything or anyone directly affected by the workings of evil.
I don’t really have any clear answers or understanding of it all. I know the mother of the young man is a believer in Christ and I pray that she lean heavily on the Lord at this time. I also “know we are more than conquerors through him who loved us,” and that Jesus is at the right hand of God and interceding for us. I also know that “by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of (y)ours and every act prompted by (y)our faith.” (2 Thes. 1:11) May our actions be prompted by faith, may others leave evil ways and come to faith through God’s work in and through us, and may our Lord – the one true Lord - be glorified by our lives for Him here.
