I found Satan yesterday.
No, that’s not a typo. You might have figured out I already found Jesus long ago (hence the Christian blog,) but I met Satan head on yesterday. It. Was. Intense.
You might be curious where I ran into this sneaky literal devil. He was in the copy machine at church.
Are you confused yet? Probably, but that’s ok. I was too until I started thinking. Here’s the back story: I have been working like crazy this week to prepare for a big team launch that I am heading up our church. I love teaching, teambuilding and leadership, so this is right up my alley. While it is a TON of work, it has been very exciting. We are doing our official launch of the team tomorrow, hence why I was making copies of everything imaginable.
And, as we have discussed, The Enemy doesn’t want us doing great things for God and sharing His message. Which is why he was hiding in the copy machine. Waiting for me.
A job which should have taken an hour or so consumed my entire afternoon– as well as our administrative assistant’s afternoon, the copy machine/printer guy’s time, and a big chunk of valuable time of my boss and her daughter.
While I am beyond thankful that these folks jumped in to help me out, it would have been even better if things went smoothly and I could have slammed this project out on my own. However, Satan had different plans. Nearly everything that could go wrong and/or slow down the process did (minus my computer actually melting into a puddle, and I think God’s grace saved that one.)
Long story short: My computer wasn’t hooked to a printer, there were only a few methods on how we could print color, the margins weren’t lining up, things that originally were spelled correctly (seriously) somehow got changed between my computer, Janell’s (admin asst) email inbox (since I had to email all of the docs to her) and the copy machine, ETC.
So why do I tell you all of this? Because I was surprised how I reacted. Yes, I was frustrated and a little stressed. Annoyed. Exasperated. In need of a Diet Dr. Pepper and huge bag of chocolate. But I still confident that God was going to figure it out in His time. I have been in these same situations in previous jobs and spent most of the time fighting tears (and usually lost that fight.)
But yesterday, as we were FINALLY nearing the end of this debacle and Satan was starting to loosen his grip, Janell walked up behind me and started to rub my shoulders for some encouragement. She gasped and commented how my neck and shoulders weren’t tense AT ALL. I laughed and realized that all day I had been praying… outloud, under my breath, knowing God called us to this and was going to bring us through it. After about 12 hrs of ministry work (5:30am to 5:30pm) I found myself singing praise and worship music in the admin wing of the church. In the copy room.
Wow. Good work, Jesus. You win again.
Oh, and did I mention… after I got home, I power-cleaned my house (because it somehow vomited on itself and one of my best friends from KS is coming to visit) for THREE hours straight. I contribute this motivation of course to the power of God, but also because I gave him my firstfruits of time today. Between my personal quiet time with him and CRAVE, I spent nearly two hours in His presence. Not to mention all the time that I spent talking (begging) Him to help throughout the day. Even with a huge to-do list. My heart is at peace. And I almost can’t believe it. (Almost.)
Moral of the story: be on the lookout for the The Enemy– you never know where he is going to be. He might be in your living room, car or even church.
Hey, he might even be waiting for you in a copy machine so he can attempt to exercise his Devil’s copyright.
Well, I’ve got news for Him. When Jesus is involved, the devil ain’t gonna get nothing but a copywrong. Christ will win. Every time.
Victory in Christ,
SGK
“But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” –1 Corinthians 15:57
