Spiritual warfare: It doesn’t take much

For the last several weeks, I’ve been taking an online class through private tutoring on Skype and using Google Documents (“Google Docs”). Last night as I prepared to review this past Saturday’s lesson and do my homework, I discovered to my chagrin that Google Docs would not open.

I tried multiple times to open it, then emailed my instructor to please re-send the document so I could do my assignment. Being a busy wife, mom of two teen girls, and a teacher of other students, she replied that she had already sent me the link to Google Docs and my homework was simply to write several sentences from what we’d already gone over on Saturday. 

I don’t think that I clearly communicated what was happening here. I wasn’t just being lazy or careless about opening the doc, but some tech issue was stopping me from accessing the Google doc!

Later I discovered that for some reason, my laptop’s Firewall was not allowing me to open it. Then why had it allowed me to open it this past Saturday and the weeks prior to that? (It could have been the recent updates.)

My instructor said, “This is very strange. This has never happened before with any of my students.” This should have been a clue!

This morning right before class I was able to open it,  we got through the lesson with a few more tech hiccups, and then I started on more work after home-made tacos for a late lunch.

After class, I asked someone else for an anti-virus software recommendation. Free is not always better!

After I installed the recommended software, my laptop screen went BLACK. The death knell of laptops! I tried to not freak out. Did the usual things in this situation: Escape. Push keys. Control, alt, delete. Nope.

After 30 minutes of troubleshooting, I did the only things left I knew to do. Prayed, texted my husband Ray and my sister Maria, and then I cried. 

Spiritual warfare. It doesn’t take much, does it? Ridiculous and immature, I know. It’s not like someone DIED. But techy issues are in the top 10, maybe even the top 3, of major stressors in my life. My sister concurred, saying she hates tech issues and she was so sorry that I was dealing with this.

Shortly after I vented to Ray and Maria, prayed, and had a good ol’ Scarlett O’Hara “crying jag,” the laptop began working again. I just stared at it, mute and depressed.

 Jeremiah 12:5, NKJV, says, “If you have run with the footmen and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with horses?” If computer tech issues stress me out so bad, how on earth am I going to handle bigger battles?

Satan knows it doesn’t take much at all to “get” to us. Things like:

• You didn’t win one of the 22 free tickets for a trip to Hawaii at your work’s breakfast meeting this morning (you really want to go to Hawaii!);
• You get a severe migraine from stress (all the bills, the kids’ messes, arguments with your husband about dumb stuff) and can’t focus on your job at work;
• You have tons of reading assignments for your college class, right after you get off work at 8:30 p.m (and you work early again in the morning!);
• A patient puked on you in the ambulance at your paramedic job;
• Your beloved golden retriever dog pooped on your fave Skechers shoes;
• You go on Facebook and see her big, smiling pics again–her online biz is thriving, she has a glorious summer tan to go with her blonde, highlighted hair (a la “California Girls” style), and she actually has a happy marriage;
• A fly is buzzing around the kitchen as you try to cook supper;
• You’re totally out of creamer for your morning coffee;
• A virus shuts down the entire planet for months.

See what I mean? Forget the devastating impact another world war can cause; you might not be able to have your coffee today!

The little things become THE BIG THING. Or as I recently read in a book of a Scottish saying, “Many a mickle make a muckle.”

Satan doesn’t have to create a muckle to ruin our whole day. All he has to do is send a few “tech gremlins” over to mess with ya, when you’ve got important things on your to-do list.

C.S. Lewis put it accurately in his fascinating book, The Screwtape Letters:

“Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one–the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts…Your affectionate uncle, Screwtape.”

In other words, the best way for Satan to turn me into a stark, raving-mad lunatic is to cause me tech issues on my laptop, for me to get hot, thirsty, and hungry, or for Ray to bang cabinets in the morning and burn food.

I look around at the world today and see that I’m not alone in feeling easily overwhelmed, stressed out, depressed, anxious, fearful, or angry over the mickles (the small things). 

Even Christian believers–we who are supposed to be like little Jesuses on the Earth–are fighting over whether to wear face masks; how to write the letter “X” (tweeted 48.6k times in 2019); or if you should bite or lick your ice cream (196 results on Twitter, with 47.4% biting and 52.6% licking it). 

Jesus dealt with these absurdities in His day, too. He said in Matthew 23:23, NLT: “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law–justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things.”

Examples of this are:

• the men who wanted to stone the woman caught in adultery (but where was the man who was in bed with her? What about the stone-throwers’ own sins? John 8:1-11);
• the religious people who were angry that Jesus healed the woman bent over for 18 years, on the Sabbath (Luke 13);
• the disciples offended that the woman broke the alabaster jar and anointed Jesus’ feet with it, instead of selling it and giving the money to the poor (Matthew 26:6-13);
• the poor widow who put in 2 small coins as an offering, worth a small fraction of a danarius, whom Jesus said gave more than all those contributing out of their abundance (Mark 12:41-44);
• the little boy who gave 5 barley loaves and 2 small fish, which fed over 5,000 people (John 6:9);
• the man with the withered hand. Jesus asked, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” They were silent and Jesus was angry and grieved at their hardness of heart. When he restored the man’s hand, the Pharisees went out and counseled with the Herodians how to destroy Him. (Mark 3:1-6)

No, it doesn’t take much for Satan to upset and anger people. Even God doing good things.

May our prayer today be for God to help us each day to walk in more of His agape love, grace, mercy, faith, patience, and justice. To deal with the little mickle and not make a muckle out of it.

What “mickle” do you struggle with? Leave your comments below.

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