Spectre
What is that Ancient Chinese curse? “May you live in interesting times”. To say times have been interesting in the last few days is putting it mildly. Our tails are practically on fire.
I doubt any of us foresaw the cyclone that was brewing as we clasped 2020 so enthusiastically to our bosom. Who could have known the fledgling year would turn and strike like a viper? Impossible to hear the portents over the sound of fireworks, but they were there. Only days past Christmas, the whirlwind exploded on the House of Winsor. Harry and Megan dropped a bombshell so audacious even the most cynical did not see it coming. While still reeling from royal aftershocks, only the outbreak of the corona virus could possibly have upstage Mexit, but it did. Since then, we’ve been inundated with predictions, statistics, prognostications, pronouncements and just plain talk, talk, talk. It’s enough to make you gleefully embrace self-quarantine.
Never before have we seen such a phenomenon of media coverage from all over the world in real speed. You have to deal with bad news, from everywhere, all at the same time! It’s difficult to be properly and thoughtfully digested at such a speed. Not surprising, then, that the atmosphere is highly reactive, and the paranoia levels among normally sensible, level-headed people are extremely elevated.
The problem is, we are dealing with a spectre; a warped and inflated reality that is really the ‘ghost’ of the truth. To attack us with a microscopic molecule, phantom agent of the unknown so small it cannot be perceived, is the very stuff of nightmare. Peril is an invisible, disembodied spirit, pervading everything and poisoning the atmosphere. We are menaced with unseen dread, a companion that will not be silenced. The threat lies in the shadows, in the idea of how truly exposed we are.
This is straight out of the play-book of our arch-enemy, Satan Himself. He’s a past-master at discerning our greatest unspoken fears and distorting them into huge proportions in our minds. He isolates our terror and magnifies it for the inward eye. Without the presence of the Holy Spirit calming our mind and balancing our soul, the human spirit is a morass of anxiety, anger, hatred and negative emotion. It’s not surprising that we’re simmering just below the hysteria line.
It’s time to get a grip on ourselves, eschew the gloom and doom and be the light that sends the darkness scurrying. Despite all evidence to the contrary, we chose the shadow under which we live. Staying under Satan’s Spectre is just plain stupid. The shadow of the Almighty is our real home.
He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.”
Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler And from the perilous pestilence. He shall cover you with His feathers, And under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and buckler. You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, Nor of the arrow that flies by day, Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.
A thousand may fall at your side, And ten thousand at your right hand; But it shall not come near you.
9 Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge, Even the Most High, your dwelling place, No evil shall befall you, Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling; For He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you in all your ways.
14 “Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name. He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him, And show him My salvation.”
The words of the ninety-first psalm quiet my mind and re-orient my thinking. Suddenly, I can breathe again. There is a Savior who has no intention of letting any enemy run roughshod over me. I’m just His little lamb. He’s going to have to deal with Big Bad Viruses, and I know Covid-19 causes Him not the slightest disturbance.
Frankly, I admit I'm clueless as to how to contend with any of this. My mind simply cannot encompass the enormity of this unfolding situation. I pray and uphold the things the Lord has previously spoken, as if they were already done. He is still upholding the universe, after all.
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Spectre Definition: Dictionary.com, Collins English Dictionary, Bing