Some time ago, I heard of an incident in a school. This school operates a hostel for some of its kids, and as things have stood for a while, the kids do not experience much of Christian fellowship while in residence. The young woman who manages the hostel used to take them all out to some church on Sundays, but even that had to be suspended because of security concerns. As an interim measure, a guest minister was engaged to come in on Sundays in the afternoon to hold a worship service with the kids. A couple of months ago, this minister, a woman, came in as usual around noon. In the course of the meeting, while she was leading them in prayers, things got somewhat out of hand. A number of the children began to ‘manifest’ – some collapsing to the floor and a few others going into fits and vomiting stuff. The minister was taken aback by these apparent manifestations of demonic presence and influence, but with the help of the hostel matron, she was able to bring things back under control after some three to four hours of intense ministration.
An obviously shaken hostel help of a certain school ran one day to her Principal’s office. She wanted to be prayed for, to be ‘born-again’, and safe. Two young girls in her hostel had scared and intimidated her for some time, and when she learnt that her new Principal was a ‘born-again’ Christian, she felt it was time to seek help. These girls had told her that she was their dead grandfather’s wife, and that he usually came to visit and to play with them in the night. They warned her to be nice to them and to keep her mouth shut, or they would punish her very severely. According to them, she was ‘easy meat’, unlike another hostel staff they said had some fire around her so they couldn’t touch her. This frightened woman took their threats seriously, especially when she noticed the strange influence that these two sisters seemed to wield over other kids in the hostel. Something about them scared her!
Our schools used to be lively grounds for positive spiritual encounters, where vibrant fellowship and discipleship set the tone for committed and fruitful Christian living. Some of us are products of those far better circumstances. I passed through a dormitory system in my secondary school days. From the 5.45 am morning devotions to FCS (Fellowship of Christian Students) meetings several times in the week, we were kept fired up. There was that healthy distinction in those days between the children of God and those who were not, and the light of the Gospel kept the influence of darkness subdued. Things don’t seem to be quite the same now! Find your way into some school dormitory today, and you’re not likely to hear some excited teens singing Christian songs early in the morning or praying out loud at night. Those kinds of activities don’t seem ‘right’ any more. Really, even for excitable youth, it’s not easy to mix these with the more compelling beckonings of experimentations in drugs, sex, music and movie-peddled porn.
What happened in our schools? A lot! From sly government interventions and policies concocted to tactically edge out Christian oversight in most schools, to sheer foolishness on the part of Christians and Christian institutions who couldn’t see the devil’s obvious finger at work in the changes that were sweeping through our educational system: a lot has happened to bring things to where they are today.
Nobody needs sweat to bring on darkness; you just switch off the lights. To varying measures we have all been called to be light in our world. If Darkness has mounted its monstrous canopy over our institutions, it is most certainly partly because the ‘lights’ went to sleep. While atheists and jihadists and gays push and lobby their way into our systems, employing all conceivable tools to sideline the message of Christ, many Christians have lived with visions no wider than tackling personal needs and hankering after new blessings. Many are so coy and spiritual, wouldn’t dandy with carnal weapons, while the godless smartly weave themselves into strategic spots till they can easily adjust laws and policies to lock down the godly and give wings to evil.
While we hope that Christians will get more proactive and vigilant in watching over our treasured institutions against satanic incursions, we must step out with our lights, and find some darkened spots. And don’t you despise the tiniest little light; there’s no telling what the Lord would do with just a little glow. It might well be what some young soul needs right now to save them from the grip of desperate evil. And remember this: The thicker the darkness, the more the impact of a little glowing lamp! If your glow makes no difference where you function now, maybe you have too much light around already: find some really dark spot, and turn it on!
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Keep your lights burning!